Plagiostomata of the Pacific. Pt. I. Fam. Heterodontidae / by N. de Miklouho-Maclay and William Macleay.

  • Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay
Date:
[1878]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plagiostomata of the Pacific. Pt. I. Fam. Heterodontidae / by N. de Miklouho-Maclay and William Macleay. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    10/34 page 312
    little behind the transverse band mentioned above, and extends along the middle of the back to near the first dorsal, when it divides and forms a band on each side, extending to and on the ventral fins. On that part of this black band which lie3 exactly between the posterior part of the base of the first dorsal and pectoral fins there is a concave curve, and from that point a black band extends to the pectoral fin. There is also another black band anterior to this, which extends from the first band in front of the first dorsal fin, and joins the second band on the pectoral; this band is a little curved (the concavity forwards), and forms with the other bands a small enclosed light-coloured triangular space. Another broad dark band extends along the back from the base of the first dorsal, and on each side of the second dorsal, to the tail. There is a lateral line along the body and tail, marking rather distinctly the line of demarcation be- tween the dark colour of the back and the light colour of the belly. Both the dorsal fins and the anal are rather light-coloured, the caudal is darker, and the pectorals and ventrals are blackish above, and pinkish below and on the edges. In specimens preserved in spirits, or dried, these markings en- tirely disappear, and they are never so vividly marked in adult specimens as in the young, as will be seen by reference to the very young specimen figured in plates 22 and 23. The average size of the adult of both sexes is a little over three feet, and they seldom, if ever, attain a length of four feet. As the relative size of the different parts has been rendered with the greatest exactness in the accompanying plates, along with an accurate scale, I do not think it necessary to give a series of measurements. The sexes scarcely differ in size or marking. The egg case is large (six inches long), conical, of a tough dark brown coriaceous texture, with six revolutions of a similar material spirally wound round it, forming a broadly-flanged conical screw. A good figure of it is given in Dumeril’s Hist. Nat. des Poiss. vol. 2, pi. 8, figs. 2—3, but that author was not then certain that it was the egg of a Heterodontus. [8]
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3