236 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



broadly edged with dark gray, a dark gray spot near tips of anterior pelvic lobes, and 

 irregular dark markings below tip of snout. 



Size. This is one of the larger Skates of the region, males maturing sexually when 

 they are about 970 mm long (about 38Y2 in.). The maximum recorded length is about 

 1,117 "^"^ (44 i'^O' '^^t t^^ ^'-^^ ^^ hatching is not known. 



developmental Stages. The egg case is about 107 mm long by 77 mm wide, exclu- 

 sive of the horns; its walls have longitudinal striae and cross-hatching much as in R. ra- 

 diata\ the lateral flanges are margined with fine threads; the tip of each of the longer 

 pair of horns is produced into a fine point. *^ 



Habits. R. lintea is confined to water of at least moderate depth, all recorded cap- 

 tures having been from 80 fathoms or deeper. Available evidence fails to establish the 

 lower limits of its usual range, but it has been taken most often in water shoaler than 

 350 fathoms. 



The bottom temperatures recorded for stations where R. lintea has been taken have 

 ranged from 3.3° C (38° F) ofi-" West Greenland to about 6° C. Thus its thermal range 

 appears to average a little higher than that oi R. fyllae (p. 199) and considerably higher 

 than that of R. hyperborea (p. 211). 



The nature of its teeth suggests that R. lintea, like R. hyperborea., feeds chiefly on 

 active prey, such as small fishes and Crustacea, but no examination appears to have been 

 made of its stomach contents. 



Range. Fishing banks ofl^ southwestern Norway, Faroe-Shetland Bank, Skagerrak 

 between southern Norway and Denmark, slope west of Ireland, and Iceland in the eastern 

 North Atlantic;^' also on the West Greenland side of Davis Strait. 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. The only reason for mentioning R. lintea here is 

 that its range extends to West Greenland, where three specimens have been taken at 

 depths of 210— 318 fathoms in bottom temperatures of 3.3—3.9° C.^' Its restriction to 

 bottom waters warmer than 3° C, and its apparent preference for depths less than 400- 

 500 fathoms, seem likely to prevent its dispersal to the American slope. 



Synonyms and References: 



Raja^^ lintea Fries, K. svensk. VetenskAkad. Handl. (1837), 1838: 154 (descr., length, color, but not syno- 

 nyms; off Bohuslan, Sweden); Miiller and Henle, Plagiost., 1841: 147 (descr., after Fries, 1838); Ek- 

 strom, Goteborg VetenskSamh. Handl., (3) J, 1850: 41 (listed, Kattegat, but probably Skagerrak in 

 reality); Kroyer, Danmark's Fisk., J (2), 1853: 1005 (descr., meas., ill., but not synonyms; off Stavangar, 

 Norway, but Kattegat ref. probably Skagerrak in reality); Nilsson, Skand. Fauna, Fish., 4, 1855: 738 

 (descr., but not synonyms, off Bohuslan, Sweden); Malm, Ofvers. Vet. Akad. Forh. Stockh., 1857: 

 193 (size off Jaederen, Norway); Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss., i, 1865: 557 (descr., size, but not syno- 

 nyms, Sweden); Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 8, 1870: 466 (descr., off Sweden); Olsson, .Acta Univ. 



65. For description and photograph of an e.%% case taken from a fish from Iceland, see Clark (Rep. Fish. Bd. Scot. 

 [1926], I, 1926: 45, pi. 27, fig. b). 



66. K. lintea has been reported from South Africa also (Barnard, Ann. S. Afr. Mus., 21 [i], 1925: 72). But the Skate 

 in question is clearly a different species, namely K. leoparda von Bonde and Swart 1924 (see Norman, Discovery 

 Rep., 12, 1935: 44). 



67. The locahties are: Lat. 66°35' N, Long. 56°38' VV; Lat. 66°45' N, Long. 56°39' W; and Lat. 66°53' N, Long. 

 56°i7'W. For details, see Jensen (Mindeskr. Steenslr. Fods. Kbh., 2 [30], 1914: 28). 



68. Also spelled Kaia. 



