Mobula hypostoma (Bancroft, 1831)

Jones, Christian M., Driggers Iii, William B., Hannan, Kristin M., Hoffmayer, Eric R., Jones, Lisa M. & Raredon, Sandra J., 2020, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes inhabiting the northern Gulf of Mexico Part 1: Batoidea, Zootaxa 4803 (2), pp. 281-315 : 303

Mobula hypostoma (Bancroft, 1831) —devil ray, Atlantic devilray

Synonyms:

Cephalopterus hypostomus Bancroft, 1831

Ceratobatis robertsii Boulenger, 1897

Cephaloptera massenoidea Hill, 1862

Cephaloptera olfersii Müller, 1836

Cephaloptera rochebrunei Vaillant, 1879

Distribution. Sightings of Mobula hypostoma have been made throughout the northern GOM. This pelagic ray is usually found in nearshore coastal waters, but may also be encountered offshore ( White and Last 2016b). Pattengill- Semmens and Gittings (2003) indicate year round presence at the Flower Gardens Banks.

First Record in GOM. The first record of this species from the northern GOM is most likely that of Bere (1936).

Remarks. Boulenger (1897) described a specimen collected by Reverend J. Seed Roberts from Jamaica, which resembled Mobula hypostoma in all respects except that it lacked teeth in the lower jaw. Due to this inconsistency, he described the specimen as a new species, Ceratobatis robertsii . Notarbartolo-Di-Sciara (1987) examined the holotype and only specimen (BMNH 1897.7.1.40) of Ceratobatis robertsii for his revision of the Mobula genus. That author concluded, based on relative measurements and morphological similarity, that Ceratobatis robertsii is a synonym of Mobula hypostoma and that the lack of lower jaw teeth was a malformation. While Ceratobatis robertsii is most likely a synonym for Mobula hypostoma , there are several aspects of the description provided by Bigelow and Schroeder (1953) that conflict with descriptions of Mobula hypostoma (e.g. spiracle shape, denticle pattern, and mid dorsal ridge) and more closely resemble Mobula tarapacana (Philippi, 1892) , although these may simply be further abberations. However, the sole specimen of Ceratobatis robertsii has a disc width of 770 mm ( Bigelow and Schroeder 1953), which is significantly smaller than the size at birth (1050-1390 cm) reported for Mobula tarapacana ( White and Last 2016b) . A detailed discussion of the taxonomic history of this species is provided by White et al. (2018).

Conservation Status. Data Deficient