Gymnuridae, Fowler, 1934

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 : 486

Family Gymnuridae

▲ Gymnura hirundo (Lowe, 1843) —Raia-borboleta; Madeira butterfly ray

Lowe 1843: 94 | Günther 1870: 487 | Noronha & Sarmento 1934: 124 and 143 | Fowler 1936: 133 | Noronha & Sarmento 1948: 122 | Maul 1948: 140 | Albuquerque 1954 –56: 175 (as Pteroplatea hirundo )

Nunes 1953: 199 (as Pteroplates hirundo sic)

Krefft & Stehmann 1973b: 73 | Wirtz et al. 2008: 5 | Carneiro et al. 2014: 16.

Distribution in Macaronesia. possibly Madeira archipelago.

Madeira Material: Madeira is the type locality, but the holotype is unknown. Several specimens in BMNH labelled as G. hirundo from Japan and China were all observed by us (MB) and not confirmed as belonging to the present species. Two specimens in MMF collection previously identified by G. E. Maul as G. hirundo , were reidentified by the authors as G. altavela . Several authors questioned the validity of this species ( Compagno 1999; Wirtz et al. 2008; Eschmeyer et al. 2017; Yokota et al. 2016) and with further studies it may well be considered as a synonym of G. altavela . Since no specimens of this species have been found in museum collections, we opt to place it as in need of confirmation.