PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ued i^lV^A, SlMi by (he 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol 86 Waihington : 1939 No. 3058 



TWO NEW ATLANTIC SPECIES OF DOG SHARKS, WITH 

 A KEY TO THE SPECIES OF MUSTELUS 



By Stewart Springer 



During the winter months of 1935 to 1938, more than 50 specimens 

 of dog sharks were taken off Englewood on the west coast of Florida 

 and brought in to the Bass Biological Laboratory. AJl were mature 

 males and were taken in relatively shallow water with gill nets and 

 trammel nets. No substantiated records were found of dog sharks in 

 Gulf waters north of Key West, Fla. These specimens with one other, 

 fortunately an adult female with embryos, in the collection of the 

 United States National Museum, represent a species here described 

 as new and named for Prof. H. W. Norris, of Grinnell College. 



In examining the collection of dog sharks in the National Museum, 

 I studied and compared a series of specimens from the east coast of 

 South America with a large series of Mustelus canis from the east 

 coast of North America. Constant differences were noted, sufficient 

 to warrant the separation of the South American form as a new species, 

 which is named for Dr. Waldo L. Schmitt, curator of the division of 

 marine invertebrates at the National Musemn, collector of the type. 



In gathering material for the preparation of these descriptions, I 

 examined the types of Mustelus lunulatus Jordan and Gilbert, M.fas- 

 ciatus (Garman), M. abbotti Evermann and Radcliffe, andM. nigroma- 

 culatus Evermann and Radcliffe and studied good series of the species 

 from North America and Japan and representative series of most 

 other species. No specimens were seen certainly referable to Mustelus 

 pundulatus Risso, M. osborni Fowler, or M. mento Cope, and the 

 European and Australian specimens available for study were few. 



116426—39 461 



