A NEW SPECIES OF RAY FROM THE TEXAS COAST, AND 

 REPORT OF THE OCCURRENCE OF A TOP MINNOW NEW 

 TO THE FAUNA OF EASTERN TEXAS. 



By Asa C. Chandler, 



Of the Department of Biology, Rice Institute, Houston, Texas. 



In a collection of fishes received from Mr. Ira P. Cox at the Houston 

 city market there was contained a specimen of fay which proved 

 to be a new species. Two specimens were collected off the Galveston 

 jetties in the Gulf of Mexico at a depth of between 5 and 10 fathoms, 

 on November 17, 1920. The larger one, unfortunately, was not 

 preserved, but the smaller one, a female, was sent to the Rice 

 Institute with some other fishes. Examination showed that this 

 species did not conform to any of those described by Jordan and 

 Evermann, and no species to which it conforms could be found in 

 the literature since the publication of Jordan and Evermann's 

 work in 1896. My hearty thanks are due to Prof. C. H. Gilbert, of 

 Stanford University, for assistance in looking up this literature. 



The ray in question apparently occupies a position intermediate 

 between R. eglanteria of the Atlantic coast of the United States and 

 R. acldeyi of the Yucatan banks, but differs from both these species 

 in color and minor structural characteristics. 



RAIA TEXANA, new species. 



TEXAS RAY. 



Disk, including ventrals, about as long as broad, 12f inches in 

 width in the type specimen, the total length 20^ inches; widest 

 region of disk very slightly behind middle. Posterior edge of pecto- 

 rals convex, the anterior edge concave. 



Snout somewhat produced, its angle acute but bluntly rounded 

 at tip. A broad, rhomboid, translucent, unpigmented space at 

 either side of snout, the width between pigmented areas at sides 

 equal to distance from tip of snout to eye; interorbital space concave, 

 not quite 3 in this distance. Long diameter of eye 2\ in interor- 

 bital space. Spiracles larger than eyes and directly behind them. 

 Mouth opposite a point just behind middle of eye. Nostrils small, 

 their distance from corners of mouth about half the width of the 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 59-No. 2393. 

 27177— 21— Proc.N.M.vol.59 42 657 



