XIV. NOTES FROM THE BENGAIv FISHER- 

 IES LABORATORY, No. 7. 



On some Indian Torpkdinidae from the Orissa Coast. 

 By B. Prashad, D.Sc, Offg. Director of Fisheries, Bengal. 



(Plates VI, VII.) 



The present paper deals with some Torpedinidae that I have 

 had a chance of collecting and observing at irregular intervals 

 during the past two years at Puri, on the Orissa coast of the 

 Bay of Bengal. For the sake of completeness, I have also gone 

 over the entire collection of these forms in the Zoological Survey of 

 India (Indian Museum, Calcutta). It has thus been possible to 

 clear up certain doubtful points regarding the nomenclature, 

 synonymy and variation of the various forms dealt with here. A 

 description of a fairly advanced stage of embryos of Narcine indica, 

 Henle, obtained by dissection out of a gravid female, and of the 

 structure of the gravid uterus is also included. 



Four of the six Indian genera of Torpedinidae were found at 

 Puri ; these are Torpedo^ Narcine , Narke and Bengalichthys. Of the 

 other two, Narcohates is a deep-sea genus and is not likely to 

 occur near the coasts, while the occurrence of the other (Temera) 

 in Indian waters is still problematical. 



For the facilities regarding material and literature afforded 

 by the officers of the Zoological Survey of India I am greatly 

 indebted to them. My thanks are also due to Mr. J. Clinton 

 Bond, Curator, McMahon Museum, Quetta for kindly sending me 

 for examination a co-type of Torpedo zugmayeri, Englh., a 

 species discovered in recent years on the Mekran coast of Balu- 

 chistan. It may be of interest to mention here that this is the 

 onl^'' specimen of this species preserved in any of the Indian 

 Museums. 



Torpedo, Houttuyn. 



1764. Torpedo, Houttuyn, Nat. Hist. VII, p. 453. 

 iqog. Torpedo, Annandale, Mem. Ind. Miis. II, p. 42. 

 1913. Narcacion, Garman, Mem. Mits. Comp. Zool. Harvard XXXVI, 

 p. 304. 



Garman' s valuable memoir, in which he has proposed to re- 

 place the generic name Torpedo by Narcacion, calls for some 

 remark. Narcacion is one of the various names used by Klein, a 

 pre-Linnean writer, in his Historia Piscicum Naturalis (1740-1744). 

 The names were later accepted and published in an anonymous 

 work commonly known as Neuer Schauplatz (1775-1781). In this 

 work the authorities for generic and specific names are given, and 



