Rhynchobatus palpebratus Compagno & Last, 2008

White, William T. & Ko’Ou, Alfred, 2018, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 4411 (1), pp. 1-82 : 48

Rhynchobatus palpebratus Compagno & Last, 2008

Eyebrow Wedgefish

Rhynchobatus palpebratus Compagno & Last, 2008: 230 , Figs. 1 –3. Holotype: CSIRO H 3384-01. Type locality: northwest of Wessel Islands, Northern Territory.

Local synonymy: Rhynchobatus djiddensis— Munro, 1967: 18, pl. 2, fig. 23 (New Guinea); Filewood, 1973 (in part): 10 (PNG). Rhynchobatus palpebratus —Last et al., 2016g: 74 (PNG); White et al., 2018: 204, figs (PNG).

PNG voucher material: (18 spec.) CSIRO H 7805-01, female 580 mm TL, Freshwater Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°8’19.2” S, 145°57’4.2” E, 14–18 m depth, 14 Jun. 2014; CSIRO H 7820-02, female 650 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°7’ S, 144°29’ E, 18 m depth, 1 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 7823-01, juvenile male 830 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°8’ S, 144°27’ E, 17–18 m depth, 9 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 7825- 0 1, female 540 mm TL, east of Fly River mouth, Gulf of Papua, 8°37’ S, 144°11’ E, 17–19 m depth, 13 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 7828-01, female 490 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°2’33” S, 144°39’21” E, 25–31 m depth, 7 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 7836-02, juvenile male 470 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°2’31” S, 144°38’46” E, 21–23 m depth, 16 Dec. 2014; CSIRO H 8109-02 (teeth and chondrocranium), adolescent male 990 mm TL, west of Avirara, Gulf of Papua, 8°16’ S, 146°10’ E, 24–26 m depth, 28 Nov. 2014; CSIRO H 8161-02 (claspers and dried jaws), adult male 1060 mm TL, west of Avirara, Gulf of Papua, 8°20’8” S, 146°11’49” E, 14– 16 m depth, 28 Aug. 2015; KFRS E.035, female embryo 121 mm TL, Yule Island, Central Province, Nov. 1962; KFRS E.658, female 780 mm TL, southeast of Vailala, Gulf of Papua, 8°3’7” S, 145°28’43” E, 20–21 m depth, 23 Nov. 2014; KFRS E.660, female 540 mm TL, southwest of Kerema, Gulf of Papua, 8°5’22” S, 145°34’29” E, 19 m depth, 25 Nov. 2014; KFRS E.737, juvenile male 810 mm TL, east of Fly River mouth, Gulf of Papua, 8°42’ S, 144°3’ E, 19–22 m depth, 3 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.738, juvenile male 490 mm TL, east of Fly River mouth, Gulf of Papua, 8°43’ S, 144°7’ E, 18–20 m depth, 3 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.740, juvenile male 640 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°0’ S, 144°42’ E, 18–21 m depth, 4 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.748, female 430 mm TL, Gulf of Papua, 18–21 m depth, 4 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.757, female 530 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°4’23” S, 144°38’55” E, 22–31 m depth, 14 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.761, female 560 mm TL, south of Deception Bay, Gulf of Papua, 8°3’22” S, 144°40’17” E, 28–29 m depth, 6 Dec. 2014; KFRS E.764, female 500 mm TL, east of Fly River mouth, Gulf of Papua, 8°18’44” S, 144°20’42” E, 27–30 m depth, 13 Dec. 2014.

Remarks: First recorded from PNG by Munro (1967) as R. djiddensis . Filewood (1973) also recorded this species from PNG but the information provided could not distinguish whether referring to this species or R. australiae (or both). Common in the coastal fisheries catches and in the bycatch of the Gulf of Papua prawn trawl fishery during recent surveys; caught mainly on soft bottoms where R. australiae typically found on sandy areas adjacent to or amongst rocky reef habitat.

Figures

FIGURE 1. The current location of the KFRS collection in the biological sciences area of the University of PNG.