Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 



III 



Tentative Key to Species >^* 



la. Spiracles separated from eyes by a distance as long as horizontal diameter of orbit. 



tasmaniensis Richardson 1840. 

 Tasmania (type locality), Victoria, and 

 New South Wales. 

 lb. Spiracles close behind eyes. 



2 a. Caudal fin fan-shaped, with more or less definite lower and upper corners, 

 its posterior margin approximately vertical, its lower margin only weakly 

 convex at most. 



3 a. Disc conspicuously marked above with white vermiculations on a dark 

 ground. vermiculatus Breder 1928. 



Pacific Coast of Mexico. 

 3 b. Disc either plain-colored above or with dark markings on paler ground. 

 4a. Outer (posterior) margins of pelvics weakly but continously convex 

 or straight. 



5 a. Margins of spiracles conspicuously corrugate or tuberculate. 

 brasiliensis (Olfers) 1831, 



including entemedor Jordan and Starks 1895, p. 120. 

 5 b. Margins of spiracles only faintly tuberculate, if at all so. 



Hngula Richardson 1846. 

 Indo-China, China, Japan. 

 4 b. Outer (posterior) margins of pelvics conspicuously concave. 



schmitti Hildebrand 1948.1^^ 

 Gulf of California. 

 2 b. Caudal fin ovoid, its posterior margin convex and strongly oblique, its lower 

 margin continuously rounded without definite lower corner. 

 6a. Posterior parts of pectorals slightly overlapping anterior parts of pelvics; 

 posterior outlines of pectorals definitely though slightly recurved; inner 

 margins of pelvics separate from sides of tail for a short distance anterior 

 to rear tips. indica Henle 1834.^^^ 



India, Malaysia, East Indies. 

 6b. Posterior parts of pectorals not overlapping anterior parts of pelvics; 

 posterior outlines of pectorals not recurved at junction with sides of 

 trunk; inner margins of pelvics united with sides of tail to their tips. 



124. Narcine mollis Lloyd (Rec. Indian Mus., i, 1907 : 8) falls in Heteronarce, according to the generic definitions adopted 

 here. 



125. Smithson. misc. Coll., 7/0(9), '94^= '• 



126. Fowler (Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 100 [13], 1941: 333) identifies N. indica Henle 1834 with Raja maculata Shaw 1S04 

 (Gen. Zool., 5 [2], 316), which was based on the Electric Ray pictured by Russell (Fish. Coromandel, i, 1803: 

 pi. i) under the vernacular name "Temeree." But Russell's account and illustration give so little detail that we 

 think it premature to accept this identification until some student is able to re-examine the whole question of the 

 inter-relationships of the Indian species of Narcine, especially since Rudolphi (Grundriss Physiol., i, 1S21 : 199) 

 long ago suggested that the Temeree might equal Narcine timlei (Bloch and Schneider) i8oi, not N. indica Henle 

 1834. 



