FISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AND ADJACENT SEAS 321 



RhinoMtus halvai Southwell, Ceylon Administr. Rep., 1912-13, p. E44. 

 (Error.) 



Rhinobatos halavi Fowler, Mem. Bishop Mus., vol. 10, p. 24, 1928 (part) ; Proc. 

 4th (1929) Pacific Sci. Congr., Java, p. 498, 1930 (reference) ; Hong Kong 

 Nat, vol. 1, p. 133, fig. 16, 1930 (compiled). 



Rhinobatus schlegeli (not Miiller and Henle) Botjlenqeb, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lon- 

 don, 1889, p. 243 (Muscat). 



Rhmobatus granulntus (not Cuvier) Bambeb, Journ. Linn. Soc. London, vol. 31, 

 Zool., p. 477, 1915 (Sudanese Red Sea). 



Depth 17 to 171/^ to sitbcaudal origin; head 3^3*, disk width 1% 

 to 2% its length. Snout I14 in head, moderately broad, rather evenly- 

 rounded; eye 9i/^ to 10, 6% to 6% in snout, 3% to 4 in interorbital ; 

 dentary width 3 to 3% in head, with 3 or 4 very short folds at each 

 mouth corner; teeth in 43 to 50 rows in jaws, each with small, obtuse 

 cusp, rhombic; nostrils large, narrowing inward, length II/2 in 

 dentary width or greater than internarial width; front nasal valve 

 feeble, narrow, short point and narrow lobe reaches halfway from 

 lobe to inner edge of nostril ; hind nasal valve larger than front one, 

 broader and inner rather narrow section reaches about % to inner 

 nostril edge; interorbital 2% to 2% in head, medially flat, with each 

 orbital rim little elevated anteriorly and above spiracles. Gill 

 openings subequal, equidistant. Spiracle large, deep, close behind 

 eye and each hind edge with 2 folds. 



Body rather smooth, usually 2 or 3 large preocular spines and 3 

 above each spiracle; 15 to 19 predorsal spines to first dorsal and 1 

 interdorsal vertebral spine besides 1 or 2 wide-set tubercles on each 

 shoulder; spines all large in young. 



First dorsal with front edge 3% to 3% in head, fin broad ; second 

 dorsal similar, front edge 3 to 314 in head; caudal 1% to 1%, sub- 

 caudal moderate, without lobe; pectoral moderate; ventral 1% to 

 1% in head ; claspers narrow, slender, extend % to hind ventral edge. 



Olive above, disk nearly cinnamon marginally and cinnamon trans- 

 lucence each side of snout. Under surface of body white. 



Red Sea, Arabia, India, Burma, Philippines, Cochinchina, China, 

 Australia. My specimens do not show the brownish spot below the 

 end of the snout, as described by Garman. The species is known by 

 its large spinous bucklers and comparatively broad snout, with the 

 shagreen of the skin rather smooth to the touch. Also reported 

 from the Eastern Atlantic on the West African coast. 



U.S.N.M. No. 47612. Red Sea. McCormick. Length, 373 mm. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 8&490. Burma. G. E. Gates. Length, 173 mm. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 49316. Red Sea. M. Bellotti. Length, 275 mm. 



The following species said to resemble Rhinobatos cemiculus G. 

 Saint-Hilaire, but that species with the eye 6 in preorbital and but ^ 

 spines longitudinally on each shoulder. 



