Waite — Fishes of South Australia 



23 



TJie cast specimen in the S.A. Mnsenm, of which the illustration is a photo- 

 graph, is over twenty-five feet in len^'th ; the species is said to attain to nearly 

 forty feet. The gill-slits extend from the top of the head to the throat, and the 

 gill-rakers act as do the blades of baleen in the whalebone whales, straining from 

 the water the small animals upon which they similarly feed. 



Family SQUALIDAE. 



SQUALUS Linnaeus, 1758 (acanthias). 



SQUALUS FERNANDINUS Molina (Spiny Dogfish). 



Sgtiahis fernandinus Moll., Saggio sulla storia Nat. Chili, 1782, p. 229 ; Garm., 



Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., xxxvi, 1913, p. 195 (syn.). 

 Acanthias hlainvillii and A. megalops MacL, P.L.S., N.S.W., vi, 1881, p. 367. 

 Sgiialus megalops Waite, Rec. Aust. Mus., iv, 1901, p. 33, pi. iv, fig. 2 (foetus). 

 Acanthias vulgaris McCoy, Prod. Zool. X'wt., dec. viii, 1883, pi. Ixxv (not Risso). 



Fi^'. 30. S(][ii(ihis fcnuindiitus. 



The young are born alive, and to provide against laceration of the membranes 

 of the mother by the sharp spines in front of the dorsal fins, each is, before birth, 

 covered with a little knob. 



The sharks of the Squalidae and following Families have no anal fin. 



ACANTHIDIUM Lowe, 1839 (pusillum). 

 ACANTHIDIUM QUADRISPINOSUM McCulloch (Long-snouted Dogfish). 

 Acunthidium quadrispinosioii McCulL, Endeavour Res., iii, 1915, p. 100, pi. xiv, 

 fig. 5-8. 



Fig. ol. AcaiitJiidiuni quudyisjiinosuDi. 

 Found in deep water in the Great Australian Bight and off Victoria. 



