1909.] 



N. AnnandaIvE : Report on the Batoidei. 



55 



(pi. x) accompanying the paper from which this quotation is taken is by no means 

 accurate but shows the white spots extending as far forwards as the spiracles and, 

 moreover J represents the snout as exceedingly short. 



It seems indisputable, therefore, that the name Aètohatis narinari belongs to 

 the American form, which there is every reason to think was redescribed by Duméri] 

 as A. latirostris and by Gill as A. laticeps. For the common Indian form, on the other 

 hand, the name A. guttata (Shaw)' is available. There is, however, a second Indian 

 form, much rarer than the first in the Bay of Bengal, which, in Mr. Boulenger's 

 opinion, is identical with Bloch and Schneider's Raja ßagellum, and corresponds very 

 closely with the description of that species given by Müller and Henle ( ' ' Plagiostomen, ' ' 

 p. 180). I therefore recognize the following species in the genus : Aètohatis narinari 

 (Euprasen), A. guttata (Shaw) and A. ßagellum (Bloch and Schneider). Possibly others 

 exist. 



Fig. 10. — Heads of Aètohatis : K, A. fiageUum ; B, A. 

 and Everman's figure). 



; C, /I. narinari (enlarged from Jordan 



' See Shaw's General Zoology or Systematic Natural History, vol. v, partii, p. 285 (1804). Shaw did 

 not distinguish the Atlantic from the Oriental species, and his figure of " Raja guttata " is quite 

 indefinite; but as he clearly meant to include the common Indian species in his description, his name 

 may stand. 



