2 . Special Part 



Family Rajidae 



1 . R.aja sp . 



Raja violacea Suvorov, Bull. Ac. Sci. URSS, 1935, p. 431, fig. 1. (West 

 Kamchatka, 47-100 m.). 



In Bering Sea (and also taken m Okhotsk and Japan Seas) is often found a 

 skate, which differs from previously described forms in the absence or slight 

 development of large bony tubercules on the tail and midline of the body. The 

 dorsal surface is usually covered with small spicules which also cover the 

 dorsal part of the tail not leaving any bare space about the tubercles, contrary 

 to R. smirnovi Soldatov & Lindberg found m far eastern seas. In our collection 

 is one new form from the Japanese Sea (at the mouth of the Povrotny at 195 

 meters) in which the disk and dorsal portion of the tail is covered with sm.all 

 spicules but no tubercles. On the tail are ca. 38 small fine spicules, which 

 differ but little from the others . In the zoological institute of the Academy of 

 Sciences SSSR are 10 examples of tMs form from the Okhotsk Sea and Avacha 

 Bay which show much individual variation. The spicules on the tail are some- 

 times large and numerous; sometimes slightly developed, or m some absent. 

 Also, the density of the body spicules vary. Similar examples from the 

 Okhotsk Sea are described by E. K. Suvorov as R. violacea and compared with 

 R. kenojei , R. binoculata and R . smirnovi . However, it appears much closer 

 to R. interrupta Gill & Townsend (Bering Sea) with which its name may well 

 be changed with the study of more material. 



In the Bering Sea (reaching to 145 cm length) this species occurs to Cape 

 Navarin and the southern part of Anadyr Gulf, which appears to be the northern 

 limit of the genus Raja ; Jibwever, local inhabitants s^y skates are taken in 

 Providence Bay and off the Chukchi Pemnsula.—' 



Family Clupeidae 



2 . Sardinops sagax melanosticta (Temminck & Schlegel) 



Sardine ivasi is very important commercially in the Far East. Until 

 recently it was known only from the Coasts of China, Korea and southern 

 Japan, from where it makes annual migrations to the north along tlie coast 



y 



On the American coast T. Bean (Proc . U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 4, pp. 261) 

 1882 reported skate (on the basis of remains as R. parmifera) from St. 

 Michaels (NE of the mouth of the Yukon River) . 



