Devil ray

description

Giant Devilray or Spinetail Devil Ray. Notarbartolo di Sciara et al. (2020) note that recent taxonomic changes among the Mobulidae have made the name Giant Devilray obsolete and suggest that Spinetail Devil Ray is more accurate. To at least 5.2 m (17.1 ft) DW (Last et al. 2016). Circumglobal; western Pacific Ocean north to Korea and northern Japan (as Mobula japonica, Aonuma and Yoshino in Nakabo 2002); central California to Peru (Ebert 2003), including Gulf of California (Galván-Magaña et al. 1996). Depth: surface to at 700 m (2,296 ft) (min.: Ebert 2003; max.: Weigmann 2016). The Mobula thurstoni reported by MacGinitie (1947) from Laguna Beach, southern California is likely M. mobular (Notarbartolo di Sciara 1987). We follow Poortvliet et al. (2015) and Last et al. (2016) in synonymizing Mobula japanica (Müller & Henle, 1841) with this species.

Checklist of marine and estuarine fishes from the Alaska-Yukon Border, Beaufort Sea, to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

discussion

Remarks: White et al. (2018) synonymized Mobula mobular (previously considered a Mediterranean Sea endemic) with M. japonica with precedence given to the name M. mobular. Records from off South Africa are not well documented. Conservation status: EN (2020).

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of South Africa

materials_examined

South Africa voucher material: SAIAB uncatalogued. South African distribution: East of Port Alfred (EC) and the KZN coast.

An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of South Africa

vernacular_names

– Devil fish; Jamanta ① ② ③, Jimanta, Uge or Uja ②, Urjamanta ③

Updated checklist of marine fishes (Chordata: Craniata) from Portugal and the proposed extension of the Portuguese continental shelf