496 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



16-17 feet or more,i" in having a tail spine (or spines?) and in having prickles on the 

 tail posterior to the dorsal fin. 



Remarks. Normally this Devil Ray appears to be confined to the Mediterranean and 

 to the neighboring parts of the eastern Atlantic, from Ireland (p. 487), northern Spain,"* 

 and Portugal "5 to the Azores, Canaries, and tropical West Africa."* 



Our only reason for mentioning this Devil Ray here is that a Mohula nine feet wide 

 was taken off New Jersey in 1929 and another, 12 feet from tip to tip, was harpooned 

 near Havana, Cuba in July 1932;"' these specimens were so large that they seem to us 

 more likely to have been examples of M. mobular from across the Atlantic than to have 

 been giant specimens of M. hypostoma. The same may apply to the Raie manatia of 

 Lacepede 1798, based on a specimen nine feet wide from equatorial America, though 

 the illustration of it was partly fanciful (see References, p. 497). 



Synonyms and Possible Western Atlantic References: 



Raie cornue . . . Duhamel, Traite Peches, 4 (9), 1782: 293, pi. 17 (descr., ill., Medit. near Marseilles). 



Rata mobular Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encyc. Math. Ichthyol., 1788: 5 (descr. by ref. to the Raie cornue of Duhamel, 



1782, Medit.). 

 Raie mobular, Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 4° ed., in Buffon, Hist. Nat., j, 1798: 33, 151 (descr., Medit., 



Azores, by ref to Duhamel, 1782). 

 Raja fabroniana Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 4° ed., in Buffon, Hist. Nat., 2, [An. V' I II] 1799-1800: 104, 



III, pi. 5, figs. I, 2 (descr., ill., Medit.). 

 Raja cefhaloftera Bloch and Schneider, Syst. Ichthyol., 1801: 365 (diagn., after Duhamel, 1782). 

 Raja giorna Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 4° ed., in Buffon, Hist. Nat., 5, [An. XI] 1 802-1 803 : 662, 666, pi. 20, 



fig. 3 (descr., ill., Medit.). 

 Grande raie, Giorna, Mem. Accad. Sci. Turin, 2, 1805: 4 (descr., Medit.). 

 Mobula auriculata Rafinesque, Indice Ittiol. Sicil., 1810: 48 (for Raie mobular Lacepede 1798). 

 Aftertirus fabroni Rafinesque, Indice Ittiol. Sicil., 18 10: 48 (name only, equals Raja fabroniana Lacepede 1799- 



1800). 

 Cefhalofterus giorna Risso, Ichthyol. Nice, 1 8 10: 14 (descr., Medit.). 

 Cephalopterus massena Risso, Ichthyol. Nice, 18 10: 15 (descr., Medit.). 

 Dicerobatus mobular Blainville, Bull. Soc. philom. Paris, 18 16: 112 (name only, doubtless equals Raia mobular 



Bonnaterre 1788). 

 Dicerobatus fabronianus Blainville, Bull. Soc. philom. Paris, 18 16: 112 (name only, doubtless equals Raja fabro- 

 niana Lacepede 1 799-1 800). 

 Dicerobatus giornanus Blainville, Bull. Soc. philom. Paris, 18 16: 112 (name only, doubtless equals Raja giorna 



Lacepede 1 802-1 803). 

 Dicerobatus massena Blainville, Bull. Soc. philom. Paris, 1816: 112 (name only, doubtless equals Cephalopterus 



massena Risso 18 10). 

 Cephaloptera giorna Cuvier, Rfegne Anim., 2, 1817: 138 (name only, equals Raja giorna Lacepede 1 802-1 803). 



113. See Key (Fauna Iberica, Feces, j, 1928 : 657) for a photograph of one 4.55 meters {14 ft. 1 1 in.) wide, weighing 358 

 kilograms (788 lb.), taken on the southeast coast of Spain in 1916. Also, there is (or was) a mounted M. mobular 

 from the Mediterranean about 5 meters wide (16V2 ft-) in the Paris Museum, and a 5.2 meter (17 ft.) Devil Ray 

 has been taken at Oran, Algeria, provisionally identified from photographs as being of this species (Pellegrin, 

 Bull. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris, 7, 1901: 327-328). The Mediterranean specimen that formed the basis of the species 

 M. mobular was said to have been 15 feet 10 inches wide, 6 feet for each wing and 46 inches for the trunk between 

 (Duhamel, Traite Peches, 4 [9], 1782: 293, pi. 17; Bonnaterre, Tabl. Encyc. Meth. Ichthyol., 178S: 5). Another 

 large Mediterranean specimen, 3.49 meters wide, was also reported many years ago (Risso, Hist. Nat. Europe 

 Merid., 3, 1823: 154). 



114. Rey, Fauna Iberica, Peces, z, 1928: 656. 115. Nobre, Fauna Marinha Port. Vert., i, 1935: 492. 

 n6. Reported south to Senegal as Cephalopterus giornae by Belloc (Rev. des Trav. Peches Marit., 7 [2], 1934: 178). 

 117. Personal communication from Luis Howell-Rivero. 



