Mobulidae, Gill, 1893

Biscoito, Manuel, Ribeiro, Cláudia & Freitas, Mafalda, 2018, Annotated checklist of the fishes of the archipelago of Madeira (NE Atlantic): I-Chondrichthyes, Zootaxa 4429 (3), pp. 459-494 : 483

Family Mobulidae

* Mobula birostris (Walbaum, 1792) — Manta ; Giant manta

Maul 1948: 140 | Nunes 1953: 241 | Albuquerque 1954 –56: 183 | Sanches 1986: 120 | Wirtz et al. 2008: 5 | Carneiro et al. 2014: 16 (as Manta birostris ).

Distribution in Macaronesia. Madeira, Azores ( Santos et al. 1997; Porteiro et al. 2010; Carneiro et al. 2014), Canary Islands ( Brito et al. 2002; Brito Hernández & Sancho Rafel 2003) and Cape Verde ( Reiner 1996, 2005; Monteiro et al. 2008; Wirtz et al. 2013; Hanel & John 2014).

Remarks. one mounted specimen in MMF exhibition. Maul, 1948 refers as frequent in some seasons, coastal at surface and also occurring offshore.

* Mobula mobular (Bonnaterre, 1788) —Jamanta, urjemanta; Devil fish

Johnson 1885: 202 (as Dicerobatis giorna )

Noronha & Sarmento 1934: 133 (as Dicerobatis giornae )

Nobre 1935: 491 | Noronha & Sarmento 1948: 132 | Maul 1948: 140 | Nunes 1953: 241 | Albuquerque 1954 – 56: 181 | Krefft & Stehmann 1973c: 77 | Sanches 1986: 119 | Wirtz et al. 2008: 5 | Ebert & Stehmann 2013: 415 | Carneiro et al. 2014: 16.

Distribution in Macaronesia. Madeira, Azores ( Santos et al. 1997; Arruda 1997; Porteiro et al. 2010; Carneiro et al. 2014), Canary Islands ( Brito et al. 2002; Brito Hernández & Sancho Rafel 2003) and Cape Verde ( Reiner 1996, 2005; Wirtz et al. 2013 refer the record needs confirmation; Hanel & John 2014 refer there is no record for the area).

Remarks. Maul (1948) mentions the presence of the species in MMF collections. Indeed there is a register in the catalogue (MMF 546), but unfortunately it could not be located. Other natural history museums checked did not have Madeira specimens. In spite of this and taking into consideration the distribution area given by Ebert & Stehmann (2013), which makes the presence of this species in Madeira highly probable, we opt to consider it as present in Madeiran waters.