46 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Family ISURIDAE (?): Mackerel Sharks 



[After the manuscript on the Peruvian collections was completed, my 

 attention was called to two views of a shark appearing on the front 

 cover of the Andean Air Mail and Peruvian Times, volume 4, No. 192, 

 August 28, 1944. The shark was reported to have been caught in 

 "a fishing net outside of Ancon Bay." It had a length of 5 meters 

 (about 16.6 feet) and a weight of 1,200 kilos (2,640 pounds). One 

 view shows the back and most of one side, and the other the ventral 

 surface of the head. Although I cannot be certain of the identification; 

 such characters as are discernible suggest that it was a maneater or 

 white shark, Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus), assigned to the family 

 Isuridae by recent writers. While this shark has not been reported 

 from Peru, it was to be expected there, as it is distributed throughout 

 nearly all tropical and temperate seas. The maneater is characterized 

 by its massive body, conical snout, depressed caudal peduncle^ and 

 the broadly triangular teeth, which have serrated margins.] 



Family SQUATINIDAE: Angel Sharks 



Body and tail depressed; snout obtuse; gill slits wide, partly in- 

 ferior, and partly hidden under anterior free part of pectoral; spiracles 

 wide, placed well behind eyes; nostrils on front rim of snout, with 

 membranous flaps; mouth only slightly inferior, broad, bent forward; 

 teeth moderately small, sharp, far apart; tail bearing two subequal 

 dorsal fins; no anal fin; ventral very large; pectoral broad, not attached 

 to head, with a free lobe anteriorly. 



Peculiar small sharks; intermediate in structure and appearance of 

 sharks and skates. 



Genus SQUATINA Dumeril, 1806 



The characters of the genus are suflBciently indicated in the family 

 description. The species of this genus are widely distributed, princi- 

 pally in temperate waters. 



SQUATINA ARMATA (Philippi) 



Angelote 



Rhina armala Philippi, 1887, p. 561, pi. 7, fig. 1, Iquique, Chile (original descrip- 

 tion) . 



Squatina squatina Evermann and Radcliffe, 1917, p. 11, Lobos de Tierra, Peru 

 (description). 



1 Squatina armala Norman, 1937, p. 10, Argentina (description; compared with 

 S. aculeata (Cuvier) and S. japonica Bleeker).^ — Fowler, 1941a, p. 224 

 (references) . 



Body with pectorals forming an imperfect disk, its anterior outline 

 rather strongly convex; its greatest width at outer angles of pectorals, 

 about 1.9 in total length; its length from anterior margin of snout to 

 posterior margin of pectoral 2.25; length anterior to axil of pectoral 



