BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
CO 
2. Asymmetron lucayanum Andrews. Bahama Lancelet. 
Right metapleuron continuous with median ventral (anal) fin, which passes to right of anus. 
Preoral hood extensive, the cirri united by the membrane throughout greater part of their length, and 
smooth, without sensory papillae. Gonads on the right, 29, extending from fifteenth to forty-third 
myotomes inclusive. Myotome formula 444-9-fT3=66. Length g finch. Adult and young swimming 
at surface in the evening in June and July at Bernini and Nassau, Bahamas; also taken buried in 
calcareous sand. {Andrews . ) Three specimens, somewhat less than 0.75 inches in length, taken in the 
dredge and tangle at Fish Hawk stations 6086 and 6093, off Culebra, in 14.75 and 15 fathoms respectively, 
and 6097, off Humacao, in 10 fathoms. These are decidedly larger than specimens in the U. S. National 
Museum collected by Dr. Andrews. 
Asymmetron lucayanum Andrews, Studies Biol. Lab. Johns Hopkins Univ., V, 237, 1893, Bernini, Bahamas; Jordan & 
Evermann, 1. e., 4, 1890. 
Family II. G1NGLYM0ST0MID.F. The Nurse Sharks. 
Large sharks with general characters of Scylliorhinidse, but with tail very long and more or less 
abruptly bent upward at its base, as in the Galeidx. First dorsal above or behind ventrals, the second 
opposite or rather before anal ; eyes very small, with small spiracles behind them; nostrils confluent with 
mouth; nasal valves on both sides forming a quadrangular flap in front of mouth, each being provided 
with a free cylindrical cirrus; an upper and lower lip, the latter not extending across symphysis; 
fourth and fifth gill-openings close together. 
Large sharks of the warm seas; genera 3, species about 5. 
Genus 3. GINGLYMOSTOMA Muller & Henle. 
Characters of the genus included above. 
Fig. 2. — Ginglymostoma eirratum. 
3. Ginglymostoma eirratum (Gmelin). Nurse Shark; “Gata.” 
Head obtuse, depressed; nasal cirrus reaching lower lip; angles of fins obtusely rounded; tail 
forming nearly one-third of total length; skin very thick; uniform brownish, the young with small, 
scattered, round black spots. 
A large shark of the warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere, abundant about coral reefs in the 
West Indies and on the west coast of Mexico, and occasionally on our South Atlantic coast. Length 
6 to 10 feet. Not seen by us in Porto Rico, but included on the authority of Professor Poey. 
Squatus cirratus Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I, 1492, 1788, American Seas; after Broussonet. 
Squalus punctatus Bloch & Schneider, Syst. lehth.,134, 1801, Cuba; after Gata Hispanas of Parra. 
Squalus punctulatus Bloch & Schneider, 1. c., 549, 1801, Cayenne; after Squale pointille of Lacepede. 
Squalus argus Bancroft, Zool. Jour., V, 82, 1832-1834, West Indies. 
Ginglymostoma fulvum Poey, Memorias, II, 342, 1861, Havana; Poey, Fauna Puerto-Riqueffla, 3 19, 1881; Stahl, Fauna de 
Puerto Rico, 81 and 167, 1883. 
Ginglymoslc la caboverdianus Capello, Jour. Sci. Phys. Lisb. 1867, 167, Cape Verde. 
Ginglymostoma eirratum , Jordan & Evermann, 1. e., 26, 1896. 
