442 



THE PLAGTOSTOIMIA. 



Ventrals narrow, elongate, nearly half extended behind the ends of the pectorals, 

 rounded posteriorly. Dorsal small, i-oiuidcd above, with a short free margin 

 and an angle behind the base, origin above the ends of the bases of the ventrals. 

 Tail whip-hke, very slender, more than four times the length of the body. In a 

 specimen at hand the measurements are from snout to vent 13, from vent to 

 end of tail 59, and across the pectorals 25 inches. 



Brown with spots of bluish white scattered over the back, fainter on the 

 head and the forward part of the disk, white beneath; tail dark. 



Tropical and temperate parts of the Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific. 



Aetobatus ocellatus. 



Rata ocellata Russell, 1803, Coromandel fishos, 2, p. 5, pi. 8. 



Eel tenkee Russell, 1803, Coromandel fishes, 2, p. 5, pi. 8. 



Myliobatis ecltcnkce Ruppell, 1835, Neue wirb. Abyssinien, Fische, p. 70, pi. 19, f. 3. 



Aetobatis indica Swainson, 1839, Class., 2, p. 321. 



Myliobatis inacroptera McClellan, 1841, Calcutta journ. nat. hist., 1, j). 60, pi. 2, f. 1. 



Stoasodon narinari T. Cantor, 1849, Malay fishes, p. 434. 



Aetobatis nariyiari Bleeker, 1852, Verh. Bat. gen., 24, Plagios., p. 87; Day, 1865, Fishes Malabar, p. 



280; 1878, Ind. fishes, p. 743, pi. 194, f. 4; Klunzinger, 1871, Syn. fische, 2, p. 245. 

 Aetobatis guttata Annandale, 1909, Mem. Ind. mus., 2, p. 56. 



Shaped hke A . narinari and A . flagellum, but deeper in the body and head 

 and more convex on the crown. Disk nearly twice as wide as long; outer angle 

 of the pectorals acute, hinder broadly rounded; anterior margins nearly straight, 

 posterior concave. As in the other Aetobati the anterior nasal valves are con- 

 fluent, deeply notched, and not free behind their point of junction; each valve 

 has a thin transverse lobe above the outer edge extending inward and forming 

 the partition in the nostril ; and each posterior valve is a thin fold from the outer 

 edge of the nostril reaching downward behind the outer half of the nasal cavity. 

 Ventrals longer than wide, free portion subquadrate, with angles rounded. 

 'Dorsal small, origin above ends of ventral bases, upper and hind margins convex. 

 Tail nearly four times the length of the body, from snout to abdominal pores. 

 Skin with a shght roughness. 



Ashy brown, greenish in life, with numerous dark-edged small spots of 

 white thickly scattered over the back; lower surfaces white; tail dark. 



A specimen used for comparison has a width of 22^, a body length, from 

 snout to pores, of Hi, and a length of tail of 45 inches. In shapes proportions 

 and colors it approaches very close to that figured by Russell. The spots are 

 rather more numerous forward. 



Indian Ocean. 



