112 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



7a. Upper surface of disc conspicuously marked with dark spots; nasal 

 curtain projecting but little, if at all, in the midline. 



tinilei (Bloch and Schneider) 1801. 



India, Malaysia, East Indies, Indo-China to 



China and Japan. i^' 



7b. Upper surface plain-colored; nasal curtain with a distinct projection 



in the midline. brunnea Annandale 1909. 



India and Ceylon. ^^^ 



Narcine brasiliensis (Olfers) 18311^^ 



Lesser Electric Ray 



Figures 24, 25 



Study Material. Thirty-five specimens of both sexes, from iio mm (one embryo 

 with scar, and one newborn) to 450 mm in total length, from Rio de Janeiro and Rio 

 Parahyba, Brazil; from St. Vincent, West Indies; from the Gulf of Campeche; and 

 from New Smyrna Beach and the St. Johns River, Florida (including type of var. coral- 

 Una Garman 188 1), in Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology; 19 specimens, 

 including eight embryos 69-81 mm long, from Palmetto Key, Florida, in American 

 Museum of Natural History; 14 embryos, each about 80 mm long, from Long Key, 

 Florida, in U. S. National Museum;i^" and one from off Cape Lookout, North Carolina, 

 from U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service; also three specimens (one male, two females) 

 of the Pacific form that has been known as Narcine entemedor Jordan and Starks 1895, 

 375 to 405 mm long, one from Magdalena Bay, and two from Inez Bay, Gulf of Cali- 

 fornia, in the American Museum of Natural History. 



Distinctive Characters. Torpedo nobiliana, Diplobatis pictus, and Benthobatis marcida 

 are the only other western North Atlantic Rays with which Narcine brasiliensis might 

 be confused. It is easily separable from Torpedo by the much more strongly convex 



127. Prashad (Rec. Indian Mus., ig, 1920: 99), following Garman (Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 36, 1913: 300), 

 concluded that timlei "is not an Indian form, being confined to the East Indies and Japan." However, the type 

 locality of the species is Tranquebar, southeastern India ("Habitat Tranquebariam . ." Bloch and Schneider, 

 Syst. Ichthyol., 1801: 359). 



128. Day (Fish. India, 1875-1878: 733) reported some specimens of N. timlei as spotted and others as plain -colored, 

 and it was to the latter that Annandale (Mem. Indian Mus., 2, 1909: 45) gave the name A'', brunnea. However, 

 the color patterns of various species of Narcine are so variable (p. 117) that it would not be astonishing should the 

 extremes in this respect, represented by .V. timlei and N. brunnea, prove to intergrade. It is also questionable whether 

 or not the degree to which the free edge of the nasal curtain projects in the midline is a dependable specific character. 

 Annandale (Mem. Indian Mus., 2, 1909: 44, pi- 3 A, figs. 1,2) stated, as an additional specific character of N. brun- 

 nea, that each of the ridges on the floor and roof of its mouth behind the teeth bears a pair of vertical processes. 

 But the difference in this respect, as illustrated between timlei and brunnea, is not clear cut. Narcine firma Garman 

 (Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., j6, 191 3 : 30), described from a single Ceylon specimen that seems to be in existence 

 no longer, has already been relegated by Fowler to the synonymy of A', brunnea, and justly so in our opinion. 



129. The earhest account of this species, with unmistakable illustrations, was by Gronow (Zoophyl., I [37], No. 158, 

 1763 : pi. 9, fig. 3) as Kaja lae'vis. But Gronow's names have been declared unavailable by the International Com- 

 mission on Zoological Nomenclature (Opin. 89, Smithson. misc. Coll., 73 [3], 1925: 27). 



130. The U. S. National Museum also has specimens, which we have seen, from: Jamaica; Colon; Cozumel; Texas; 

 Pensacola, Key West and Cape Canaveral, Florida; and Cape Lookout, North Carolina. 



