FAO Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes Western

Proscylliidae 1295
Eridacnis radcliffei Smith, 1913
En - Pygmy ribbontail catshark; Fr - Requin chat pygmé; Sp - Tollo coludo pigmeo.
Maximum total length about 24 cm. One of the smallest living sharks. Often occurs on mud bottoms,
on the upper continental and insular slopes and the outer shelves at depths from 71 to 766 m. Feeds
primarily on small bony fishes and crustaceans. Taken in bottom trawls in the Philippines, but
utilization not known. Wide-ranging in the Indo-West Pacific, but with only spotty records from
Tanzania, the Gulf of Aden, India, the Andaman Islands, Viet Nam, and the Philippines.
Gollum attenuatus (Garrick, 1954)
En - Slender smooth-hound; Fr - Requin chat golloum; Sp - Tollo coludo elegante.
Maximum total length about 1.1 m, maturing at about 70 cm, with females growing slightly larger
than males. An uncommon to common deep-water bottom-dwelling shark of the outermost continental
shelf and upper slope of New Zealand and on adjacent seamounts and submarine banks,
found at depths of 220 to 660 m, but most commonly between 400 and 600 m. Probably occurs in
schools. Feeds on a wide variety of mostly small pelagic and benthic bony fishes, deep-water sharks,
cephalopods (including pelagic squid and octopuses), sea snails, isopods, crabs and shrimps, and
brittle stars. Ovoviviparous, with usually 2 young per litter, fetuses eat unfertilized eggs (uterine
cannibalism) and store consumed yolk in their yolk sacs. Without interest to fisheries at present,
although taken in small numbers by bottom trawlers off New Zealand and collected in moderate
numbers by experimental longliners fishing in deep water on seamounts and banks. Occurs in the
western South Pacific, off New Zealand and on rises between New Zealand and the east coast of
Australia, New Caledonia, and Fiji just south of the area. Placement in Proscylliidae provisional,
probably will be relocated in Pseudotriakidae.
Proscyllium habereri Hilgendorf, 1904
En - Graceful catshark; Fr - Requin chat gracile; Sp - Tollo coludo grácil.
Maximum total length about 65 cm. A little-known, uncommon bottom-dwelling shark of tropical and
warm-temperate continental and insular waters, found on the shelves at depths from 50 to 100 m.
Food habits little-known. Taken by bottom trawlers in the Taiwan Straits and elsewhere in its range,
utilisation unknown. In the western Pacific from southeastern Japan southwards to Viet Nam, also
known from northwestern Java.