PTEROPLATEA CREBRIPUNCTATA. 413 



Shape resembling that of P. micrura, Plate 33, f. 3. No tentacle. No 

 dorsal. A caudal spine. In specimens of a width of fifteen inches the length is 

 about half the width of the disk. Snout with a slight prominence, distance from 

 eyes to tip about equal to distance between spiracles. Length of tail nearly 

 equal that of the body, varjdng from two thirds of the body length; folds absent 

 or indistinct. On a specimen from Penang the tail is nine tenths of the length 

 of the body and there are white spots scattered over the back. In most cases 

 the back is uniform brown and the lower surfaces are white. Miiller and Henle 

 mention an indi^^dual spotted with white as being in the British Museum but 

 do not give its locality. Tail with transverse blotches and with rings of black 

 and of white, nine to eleven of each. Usuall}' the hindmost are rings and the 

 anterior but transverse bands. Rounded spots of brown may or may not occur 

 in the white interspaces. 



Red Sea; India; Calcutta; Penang; Java. 



Pteroplatea japonica. 



Pteroplatea japonica Schlegel, 1850, Jap. Pisces, p. 309, pi. 141; Bleeker, 1857, Act. Soc. sci. Ind. 



Xeerl., 3, p. 45; Dumehil, 1865, Elasm., p. 614; Jord. & Fowler, 1903, Proc. U. S. nat. mus., 26, 



p. 662. 

 Dasyatis micrura vax. japonicus Gray, 1851, Chondropterygii, p. 122. 

 Pteroplatea hirundo Ishtkawa & Matsuura, 1897, Cat. fishes, p. 60. 



Form like that of P. poecilura or P. micrura; distinguished from the latter 

 by a shorter tail, about half the length of the disk, and by a smaller number of 

 broader bands on the tail, five to eight behind the spine. No tentacle; no 

 dorsal. 



Japan. 



Pteroplatea hirundo . 



Pteroplatea hirundo Lowe, 1843, Proc. Zool. soc. London, p. 94; Garmax, 1888, Bull. M. C. Z., 17, p. 

 100, pi. 43, f. 1. 



A close ally of P. japonica, but with a shorter tail, less than half the length 

 of the bod}', without a fold above and witli a low one below. No tentacle. No 

 dorsal fin. A caudal spine. Skin smooth. Uniform brown. 



Madeira. 



Pteroplatea crebripunctata. 



Pteroplatea crebripunctata Peter.s, 1869, Monatsb. Akad. wiss. Berlin, p. 703; .Iord. & Starrs, 1895, 

 Proc. Cal. acad. sci., ser. 2, 5, p. 390; Jord. & Everm., 1896, Bull. 47, U. S. nat. mus. p. 87; 1898, 

 ibid., p. 2753. 



Pteroplatea ram Jord. & Starks, 1895, Proc. Cal. acad. sci., ser. 2, 5, p. 387; Jord. & Everm., 1898, 

 Bull. 47, U. S. nat. mus., p. 2754. 



