fishes of new zealand. 85 



Trygox. 



Body smooth or with tubercles ; tail armed with a long arrow-shaped 

 spine, serrated on each side ; pectorals united in front ; nasal valves 

 coalescent into a quadrangular flap ; teeth flattened. 



Seas of temperate and tropical regions. 



136. TRYGON THALASSIA Columna.? CM. 



Sting-aree. 



Tceniura li/mnia, Cat. Col. Mus. T. thalassia, Gunth., VIII., 477. 



Tail with a cutaneous fold along the lower side, the depth of the fold 

 being nearly as high as the tail ; tail much longer than the body ; 

 anterior profile obtuse ; large conical thorns, in greater or less number, 

 inserted on a round radiated base, are distributed along the middle of 

 the back, on the scapulary and other regions, and especially on the tail, 

 where they occupy the sides as well as the upper surface ; even the 

 cutaneoiis fold is covered with smaller stellate ossitications (Giinth.) 



Adriatic, Atlantic 1 Pacific. 



A di-ied tail, 22 inches in length, is in the Colonial Museum, which 

 answers exactly to the foregoing description, except that in front of 

 the larger spine there is a second smaller one, also serrated, and not 

 quite one-thii-d of the length of the larger, and in front of this a large 

 blunt obtuse spine on a round radiated base like the smaller ones on the 

 sides ; the upper and lower surfaces of the tail, except near the end, 

 are smooth. It will, probaljly, turn out to be a distinct species. 



137. TRYGON KUHLII. Mull and Henle. 



T. kuhlii, Giinth., VIII., 479. 



Tail with a distinct cutaneous fold above and below, about one-half 

 longer than the disc ; the margins of the snout form an obtuse angle ; 

 body entirely smooth, or with a series of spines, pointing backwards, 

 along the median line of the back to the caudal spine; only two 

 appendages at the bottom of the mouth, behind the teeth ; upper parts 

 with some scattered bluish black-edged ocelli (Giinth.) 



Auckland (Kner. Novara. Expd.) ; Indian Ocean and Archipelago. 



I have .seen no specimens. 



