284 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Color. Upper surface rich chocolate or coffee brown except for a translucent area 

 on either side of rostral cartilage, with indistinct pale spots and blotches irregularly- 

 distributed, most conspicuous on small specimens but perhaps entirely lost on some 

 adults; also a single conspicuous dark brown or black ocellar spot bordered with yellow 

 on inner part of each pectoral a little posterior to axis of greatest breadth. Lower surface 

 plain white. 



Size. A male 468 mm long is close to sexual maturity, as indicated by the sexual 

 spines and claspers. The largest specimen is 537 mm long (see Study Material, p. 280). 



Habits. Nothing whatever is known of the habits of this species, except that most 

 of them have been taken from shallow water, the deepest being 37 fathoms for a new- 

 born specimen trawled off Aransas Pass, Texas. 



Range. Known only from the west coast of Florida (Cortez and Englewood), from 

 the coast of Mississippi, where it is reported to us as fairly common ;i^^ from Louisiana 

 (Barataria, Chauvin); and from Texas (Aransas Pass, Corpus Christi, Austin, Galveston, 

 Houston); hence it is probably restricted to the Gulf of Mexico. 



Synonyms and References: 



Rata texana Chandler, Proc. U. S. nat. Mus., ^g, 1921: 657 (descr., Houston, Texas); Baughman, Copeia, 



1943: 133 {R. texana Chandler 1921 antedates R. texana Leriche 1940, a fossil; stellata proposed as 



substitute for latter). 

 Raja texana Springer, Copeia, 1939: 237 (descr. egg case, Englewood, Florida); Woods, Copeia, 1942: 191 



(meas., near Corpus Christi, Texas); Gunter, Publ. Inst. mar. Sci. Texas, I, 1945: 21 (size, temp., sal., 



Texas). 



Genus Breviraja Bigelow and Schroeder 1948 



Breviraja Bigelow and Schroeder, J. Mar. Res., 7 (3), 1948: 548, 558; type species, B.coksi Bigelow and 

 Schroeder 1948. 



Generic Synonyms: 



Raja (in part) Garman, Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 8, 1881: 236; Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 36, 



191 3: 335; for R.plutonia Garman 1881. 

 Malacorhtna (in part) Garman, Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 8, 1881: 237 (suggests R.plutonia may be a 



Malacorhina because of short rostral cartilage.) 



Generic Characters. Pelvics not completely divided, although their margins may 

 be so deeply concave that the fin is definitely bilobed. Tip of rostral projection of 

 cranium falling short of level of anterior extremities of pectoral rays and falling shorter 

 still of tip of snout; anterior rays of pectorals reaching nearly to level of tip of snout. 

 Characters otherwise as in Raja. 



Size. Some of the species are small, males maturing at lengths no greater than 

 200-300 mm, as indicated by the condition of the claspers, but others grow larger. 



Developmental Stages. Presumably oviparous, but the eggs have not been seen. 



Habits and Range. They appear to be confined to moderately deep water, with 

 the recorded depths of capture ranging from 200 to 500 fathoms. Beyond this nothing 



164. Personal communication from Stewart Springer. 



