No. 11. — New Species of Selachians in the Museum Collection. 

 By Samuel Garman. 



Seyllium ventriosum n. sp. 



Body very stout in the anterior half, hinder portion slender. Head flattened, 

 as broad as long. Snout short, blunt. Eyes medium. Spiracle small. Nostrils 

 near the mouth, separated by a space equal to the length of the snout, with a 

 valve on each side. Anterior nasal valve short, broad, more than half as wide 

 as the nostril, reaching the teeth ; posterior smaller, of similar shape and hidden 

 by the first. The distance of the valves from each other is equal to three fourths 

 of the length of the snout. Mouth wide, crescent-shaped. Labial folds rudi- 

 mentary, not visible when the mouth is closed. Teeth small, central cusp long 

 and slender, with two lateral cusps on each side, the outer of which is feebly 

 developed, in fifty-four rows in the upper jaw. The symphysis bears no teeth; 

 on each side of it the first two rows are very small. Gill openings narrow, the 

 fourth and fifth over the pectoral, the third twice the width of the fifth. Pec- 

 torals broad and short ; margins convex, the anterior one fourth longer than 

 the posterior ; angles rounded. Ventrals short, margins convex, outer ex- 

 tremity broadly curved, posterior blunted. First dorsal twice the size of the 

 second, base above the posterior half of the ventral, height little less than the 

 length of the base, borders convex, upper extremity round, posterior blunt. 

 Second dorsal smaller than the anal, distant from the first the length of the 

 posterior border, its entire length less than that of the base of the anal, upper 

 border curved, posterior straight, hinder angle acute. Tail less than a fourth 

 of the total, its width contained in its length two and a half times, notched 

 near the extremity on the lower side, no pit at the root. The shape of the tail 

 is similar to that of S, stellare or *S^. canicula^ though broader than that of 

 either. Scales pedicellate, sharp and coarse. Nine circuits in the spiral of 

 the intestine. 



Color grayish brown, spotted and banded with darker. The spots are in- 

 distinctly outlined, irregular in size and position. Bands transverse, twelve or 

 more in number ; five of them occur between the eyes and first dorsal. Lower 

 surface darker, olivaceous and more uniform. The specimen, an adult female, 

 is twenty-nine inches in length, and measures fifteen inches around the body 

 between dorsal and pectorals. 



This species differs from S. chilense in the nasal valves, labial folds, lateral 

 cusps on the teeth, small second dorsal and its position with respect to the anal, 

 and the numerous transverse bands. One specimen from Valparaiso. 



VOL. VI. — NO. 11. 



