342 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Pastinachus (subgroup) Garman, Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., j6, 191 3: 375; type species, Raja fastinaca 



Linnaeus 1758. 

 Bathytoshia Whitley, Rec. Aust. Mus., Jp, 1933: 61; type species, Dasyatis thettdis Waite 1899, New South 



Wales, probably equals Trygon lata Garman (Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 6, 1880: 170).^* 

 Toshia Whitley, Rec. Aust. Mus., J9, 1933: 60; type species, Dasyatis fliwiorum Ogilby 1908. Australia. 

 Neotrygon Whitley, Fish. Aust., j, 1940: 208; type and only included species, Trygon kuhlii Miiller and Henle 



1 841. East Indies and India, also Philippines, South China, Australia, and western tropical Pacific. 



Probable Synonym: 



Neotngon Castelnau, Proc. Zool. Acclim. Soc. Victoria, 2, 1873: 122; type species, N. trigonoides Castelnau.^* 

 Not Dasybatus Blainville, Bull. Soc. philom. Paris, 1816: 112; equals Raja Linnaeus 1758, which see, p. 138. 

 Not Dasyatis Blainville, in Vieillot, Faune Fran?., Poiss., 1825: 12; equals Raja Linnaeus 1758, which see, 



p. 138. 

 Not Dasibatis L. Agassiz, Norn. Zool. Pise, 1845: 21; emended spelling for Dasybatis Blainville 1825. 

 Not Pastinachus Riippel, Neue Wirbelt. Abyssinia, 4, Fische, 1835: 69; equals Himantura Miiller and Henle 



1 841, which see, p. 389. 



Generic Characters. Tail much longer than disc, with a large serrate-edged spine 

 (or spines) above; its lower surface, close posterior to spine, with a well developed 

 longitudinal dermal fold, its upper surface either with a corresponding fold (usually- 

 lower), or with a recognizable ridge," or merely rounded. Teeth small and numerous, 

 closely crowded in quincunx in both sexes; those of females and of young males low, 

 rounded, or nearly flat, often worn in more or less distinct ridges; those of sexually 

 mature males with conical cusp in some species, perhaps in all.^* Upper tooth band 

 strongly convex in cross section, the lower weakly so; both bands moderately broad 

 centrally, narrowing toward corners; 6 or 7 to 10 or 12 rows of teeth exposed and in 

 function simultaneously along different parts of jaws. Pelvis without median process, 

 so far as known. Characters otherwise those of the family. 



Remarks. The genus, as here defined, corresponds to the subgenera Pastinachus., 

 Dasyatis., and Amphotistius combined, of Garman and of Fowler.^" 



Size. This genus includes the largest known Sting Rays, namely Dasyatis brevi- 

 caudata (Hutton) 1875 of New Zealand and Australia, D. aspera (Cuvier) 18 17 of the 

 Mediterranean, Madeira, and tropical West Africa, and D. centroura (Mitchill) 18 15 

 of the western North Atlantic (p. 352). 



Range. Tropical-subtropical coastlines in general. In the Atlantic, representatives 

 of Dasyatis occur from tropical West Africa to the North Sea, Skagerrak, and western 

 Baltic in the east; from Uruguay to southern New England in the west. 



35. The specimen, originally in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and from which Garman described 

 this species, is no longer to be found. 



36. Castelnau states that his trigonoides from New Caledonia, for which he proposed the genus Neotrygon, has tail folds 

 above and below ("dorsal" and "anal" fins) but no tail spine. But Fowler (Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 100 [if\, 1941: 

 426) has relegated trigonoides to the synonymy of Dasyatis kuhlii (Muller and Henle, 1841), which has well devel- 

 oped spines. If this allocation be correct, as appears to be the case, Neotrygon Castelnau 1873 is clearly a synonym 

 of Dasyatis Rafinesque 1810, as defined here, as is Neotrygon Whitley 1940. 



37. In preserved specimens this ridge sometimes becomes so obscured, perhaps through muscular contraction, that 

 the upper surface of the tail behind the spine is merely arched or simply rounded. 



38. The transition from the flat or rounded teeth in older (anterior) rows to cuspidate teeth in younger (more posterior) 

 rows may often be seen on males nearing sexual maturity. 



39. Garman (Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 36, 1913: 373) termed them subgroups; Fowler (Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 

 100 [/j], 1941: 404), subgenera. 



