Triakidae, Gray, 1851

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 : 484

Family Triakidae

Mustelus asterias Cloquet, 1819 —Caneja; Starry smooth-hound

Compagno 1973: 28; 1984b: 402 | Branstetter 1984b: 119 | Sanches 1986: 68 | Lloris et al. 1991: 233 | Wirtz et al 2008: 3 | Carneiro et al 2014: 11.

Distribution in Macaronesia. possibly Madeira archipelago and Canary Islands ( Brito et al 2002; Brito Hernández & Sancho Rafel 2003).

Remarks. Noronha & Sarmento (1934: 103), recorded Mustelus vulgaris Müller & Henle 1839 . Since part of Müller & Henle’s species is considered as a synonym of M. mustelus and another part as a synonym of M. asterias and Noronha & Sarmento (1934) do not give any diagnostic characters, it is impossible to assign this record to any of the species in question. Compagno (1973) records M. asterias from Madeira, based on Fowler (1936: 61, as M. mustelus ) and Noronha & Sarmento 1948: 97, 138, as M. mustelus ), influencing the subsequent records, all based in literature. As demonstrated in the remarks under M. mustelus in the present paper, Fowler’s and Noronha’s records were based on Vinciguerra’s (1882–83) specimens, which in turn should be considered as M. mustelus . Since no specimens or other material from Madeira were found in natural history museum collections, at this point, the presence of this species is considered as subject to confirmation.