2 12 Memoir Sears Foundation for Mari?te Research 



(Hymenodora glacialis), and three fishes, one of them more than a third as long (185 mm) 

 as its captor (518 mm). Cephalopod fragments also have been found in its stomach. 



Its egg cases have been collected in West Greenland waters, in the Barents Sea, 

 and in the Norwegian Basin from midsummer to early autumn in temperatures ranging 

 from 0.5-1.1° C and through the general depth range where the species occurs. 



Range. Arctic waters tributary to the northern North Atlantic, south to the Scot- 

 land-Faroe-Iceland Ridge in the east and to southern Greenland in the west. 



Details of Occurrence. Thus far, recorded captures of R. hyperborea have been for 

 the eastern part of the Barents Sea (three stations), from northwest of Spitzbergen (one 

 station), from south of Jan Mayen (one station), from the western, southern, and south- 

 western slopes of the Norwegian Sea, including the Faroe-Shetland Channel (about a 

 dozen stations), and from the deep fjords along the west coast of Greenland from the 

 southern extremity to as far north as Lat. 7 8° 14' N.^" But it seems that it does not occur 

 along West Greenland between about Lat. 61° and 69° 13' N or on the offshore fishing 

 banks along this sector. It has not been reported from the American side of Davis 

 Strait, but there appears to be no thermal barrier to its dispersal westward along the 

 Baffin's Bay ridge or southward, perhaps even to the northeastern slopes of the Grand 

 Banks. Therefore, watch should be kept for it along the shores of outer Labrador and 

 Newfoundland, both in the deeper fjord-like bays and on the slope in the ice-chilled 

 Labrador Current. It is not likely to penetrate the Gulf of St. Lawrence except as a stray, 

 for the temperature of the deep trough of the latter below 125-150 fathoms is too 

 high for it (4-5° C), while the overlaying layer of icy cold water (colder than 1-2° C) 

 does not ordinarily extend down deep enough to more than touch the uppermost bound- 

 ary of the ordinary depth range of this particular species. *i 



Synonyms and References: 



Raja^''- hyperborea Collett, Vidensk. Selsk. Forh. Christiania (1878), 14, 1879: 7 (descr., meas., stom. contents, 

 off NW. Spitzbergen, 459 fath.); Norske Nordhaus Exped., J, Fisk., 1880: 9, pi. i, figs, i, 2 (descr., 

 ill., same specimen as Collett, 1879, off NW. Spitzbergen); Gunther, Challenger Rep., 22, 1887: 8, 

 pi. 4 (descr., ill., between Scotland and Faroes, 400-600 fath.); Lilljeborg, Sverig. Norg. Fisk., J (2), 

 1 891: 604 {R. hyperborea Collett 1879, cf. R. hyperborea Gunther 1887, descr., food, depth, range); 

 Goode and Bean, Smithson. Contr. Knowl., 50, 31, 1895: 28, pi. 9, fig. 28; also Mem. Harv. Mus. 

 comp. ZooL, 22, 1896: 28, pi. 9, fig. 28 (descr. after Collett and Gunther; ill. after Collett); Smitt, 

 Hist. Scand. Fish., 2nd ed., 2, 1 895 : 1 1 1 1 (descr., ill., doubts if distinct from R. radiata) ; Liitken, Danish 

 Ingolf Esped., 2 (i), 1898: 2 (descr., size, S. of Jan Mayen, 1,309 fath.; N. of Faroes); Garman, Mem. 

 Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 24, 1899: 24 {R. hyperborea Collett 1879 cf. R. hyperborea Giinther 1887); 

 Lonnberg, Bih. svensk. VetenskAkad. Handl., 24 (4) 9, 1899: 34 (listed, Faroe Channel); Ehrenbaum, 

 in Romer and Schaudin, Fauna Arctica, 2, 1902: 142 (listed, off NW. Spitzbergen and Faroe Channel); 

 Knipowitsch, Exped. Wiss. Prakt. Unters. Murman Kiiste, i, 1902: 592 (listed, Murman Coast; in 

 Russian, with German abstr.); Collett, Arch. Math. Naturv., 24 (2), 1903: 7 (refs., descr., meas., stom. 

 contents, range, depth, off Vesteraalen, Norway); Knipowitsch, Annu. Mus. zool. Acad. St. Petersb., 

 8 (2), 1903: 150, 151, 153, 155 (depth, W. of north. Spitzbergen and Barents Sea); Collett, Rep. Norweg. 

 Fish. Invest., 2 (3), 1905: 10 (descr., meas., stom. contents, depth, refs., W. of Romsdalen, Norway, 



30. See Jensen (Spol. Zool. Mus. Hauniensis, 9, 1948: 38) for a list of localities along the west coast of Greenland. 



3 1 . For the distribution of temperatures in the deeper strata of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, see especially Bjerkan (Canad. 

 Fish. Exped. [1914-1915], 7, 1919). 



32. Also spelled Rata. 



