TAENIURA LYMMA. 399 



Disk rounded, pectoral fins meeting in front of skull, no rostral cartilage. 

 Anterior nasal valves confluent, with free lateral and posterior edges, median 

 attachment narrow. Mouth small, with papillae, velum fringed. Teeth small, 

 tessellate, grooved transversely. Cranium prominent; fontanel broad and 

 rounded in front of the skull, narrow between the orbits. No dorsal fin. Ventrals 

 elongate, anterior rays longer than posterior. Tail longer than the body, with a 

 spine above, in front of the middle of the length and with a rayless subcaudal 

 fin below the distal portion. 



This genus may be subdivided into two sections: — the first, Taeniura 

 proper, type T. lymma, characterized by its round disk, much waved mouth, 

 unequal teeth, subtriangular ventrals, convex skull, etc., the second, Taeniurops, 

 containing T. meyeni and T. atra more nearly alhed to species of Dasybatus, 

 distinguished by greater width of disk, straighter mouth, less diversity in the 

 teeth, less convexity in the cranium, less inequality in the ventral rays, the fins 

 being more quadrangular, etc. 



Disk round ; skin smooth, or in greater age with a few small spines 

 mouth sharply curved, with 2 papillae; teeth unequal 



greyish wifeh rounded dark edged spots of blue . lymma (page 399) 

 Disk broader than long; skin rough 

 mouth curved, with 2 papillae; 



greyish with spots of black .... melanospila (page 400) 

 Disk broader than long; skin smooth 

 Mouth straight, with 5 papillae 



blackish meyeni (page 400) 



Disk broader than long; skin rough 



a short vertebral series of rounded tubercles 



brown to black atra (page 401) 



Taeniura lymma. 

 Plate 53, fig. 4 (pelvis); Plate 65, fig. 7 (vertebrae); Plate 71, fig. 4-5 (skeleton). 



Raia lymma Forskael, 1775, Descript. Anim., p. 17; Gmelin, 1789, Linne Syst., 1, p. 1511. 



Raia lymnia Bonnaterre, 1788, Ichth., p. 5. 



Raia lymna Schneider, 1801, Bloch Ichth., p. 365; Shaw, 1804, Zool., 5, p. 287. 



Trygon lymna Cuv., 1817, Reg. anim., 2, p. 137. 



Trigon lymma RiJppELL, 1828, Atlas fische, p. 51, pi. 13, f. 1; 1835, Neue wirb. Abyssinien, Fische, p. 69. 



Trygon halgani Lesson, 1830, Voy. Coquille, Poiss., 2, p. 100, pi. 3; Guerin, 1838, Icon. Poiss., pi. 69, 



f. 3. 

 Trygon ornatus Gray & Hardwicke, 1832, 111. Ind. Zool., 1, pi. 99. 

 Taeniura ornata MtJLLER & Henle, 1837, Sitzb. Akad. wiss. Berlin, p. 117; 1838, Charlesworth's mag., 2, 



p. 90. 



