Fis/ies of the IV ester ?i North Atlantic 351 



as to prove it widespread throughout the coastwise waters of the tropical-subtropical belt 

 of the western Atlantic, including the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico as a whole. Local- 

 ities from which we have seen specimens include the following: Rio de Janeiro and 

 Pernambuco in Brazil; Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Bahamas among the 

 West Indies; Carmen, Gulf of Campeche and Progresso, Yucatan ; Aransas Bay, 

 Texas; Tampa in northwestern Florida and Molasses Key and Key West in southern 

 Florida. And reports of it from the following are doubtless well founded also: Bahia, 

 Brazil; British Guiana; Curasao; the Grenadines; Barbados; St. Eustatius; Jamaica;''* 

 New Orleans, Louisiana; Mississippi;-^" the Tortugas, Marquesas Keys, Lemon Bay, 

 and Salerno,^* in Florida. 



Its occurrence in some numbers in the general vicinity of Beaufort and Cape 

 Lookout, North Carolina has long been established. However, it seems that £). anteri- 

 cana does not range regularly or in any numbers much past Cape Hatteras, for extensive 

 collecting by the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries in Chesapeake Bay resulted in the capture 

 of only a single specimen, •"' while only two that can be referred to this species with 

 reasonable certainty have been reported from farther north, namely from Delaware 

 Bay and from Cape May, New Jersey. "^^ 



Synonyms and References: 



Dasibatus hastatui Garman, Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., r6, 1883: 70 (descr., Rio de Janeiro, Pernambuco, Cuba, 

 Florida; but name hastatus preoccupied by DeKay, 1842, for another Ray; see p. 361). 



Tngon hastata Jordan, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1885), 1887: 800 (listed, S. Atlant. and Gulf coasts, U. S., 

 and W. Indies); Metzelaar, Trop. Atlant. Visschen, 1919: 7 (size, buccal papillae, teeth; St. Eustatius I., 

 W.Indies); Bijdr. Dierk. K. Zool. Genoot. Amst., 22, 1922: 136 (size, Curasao). 



Dasyatis (Dasyatis) hastata Jordan and Evermann, Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 47 (i), 1896: 83 (descr., W. Indies 

 to Brazil and Florida); Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1895), 1896; 223 (listed, Brazil, Florida, but Rhode 

 Island ref. probably to D.centroura Mitchill 181 5). 



Dasyatis hastata^- Jordan and Rutter, Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., [49], 1897: 93 (listed, Kingston, Jamaica); 

 Evermann and Kendall, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1899), igoo: 49 (listed, Florida); Evermann and 

 Marsh, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 20, 1902: 65 (descr., Hucares, Puerto Rico); Bean, T. H., Bull. 

 N. Y. St. Mus., 60, Zool. 9, 1903: 54 (descr., but refs. only in part); Cole and Barbour, BuU. Mus. 

 comp. Zool. Harv., ^0, 1906: 155 (Progresso, Yucatan); Ribeiro, Arch. Mus. nac. Rio de J., l^, 1907: 

 188, 210 (descr., Florida to Brazil, refs. in part); Coles, Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist., 28, 1910: 338 

 (64-pound specimen with 5 embryos, C. Lookout, N. Carolina); Vincent, Sea Fish. Trinidad, 1910: 

 53 (listed, Trinidad); Gudger, J. Elisha Mitchell sci. Soc, 28, 1913: 160 (same specimen as in Coles, 

 19 10); Yearb. Carneg. Inst. (191 3), 12, 19 14: 177 (listed, Tortugas, Florida); Coles, Proc. biol. Soc. 

 Wash., 28, 191 5 : 93 (same specimen as in Coles, 1910); Fowler, Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., bj, 191 5 : 

 521 (listed, Trinidad); Wilson, Proc. U. S. nat. Mus., 4.J, 1915: 703 (copepod parasites, Montego 

 Bay, Jamaica); Fowler, Proc. biol. Soc. Wash., JJ, 1920: 146 {centroura of Fowler [Proc. Acad. nat. 

 Sci. Philad., 61, 1909: 408] actually this species; Delaware Bay); Ribeiro, Fauna brasil., Peixes, 2 (i) 

 Fasc. I, 1923: 44 (same as Ribeiro, 1907); Jordan, Manual Vert. Anim. NE U. S., 1929: 18 (diagn.); 

 Truitt, Bean and Fowler, Bull. Md. Conserv. Dep., 3, 1929: 32 (descr., Somerset County, Maryland); 

 Jordan, Evermann and Clark, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1928), 2, 1930: 28 (in check list); Gudger, 



58. Personal communication from Luis Howell-Rivero. 59. Personal communication from Stewart Springer. 



60. Hildebrand and Schroeder, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., 43, 1928: 64; this specimen was the basis for the name D. ameri- 

 cana. 



61. A nominal report of 30-40 pound hastata from Ocean City, Maryland (Bean, BuU. U. S. Fish Comm., 7, 1888: 

 151) may also belong here. However, other reports oi hastata from New Jersey, Rhode Island and Massachusetts 

 doubtless referred to Dasyatis centroura, which regularlv ranges farther northward (p. 360). 



62. Sometimes spelled hastatus. 



