502 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



western Atlantic from vicinity of Rio de Janeiro to Soutli Carolina and as a stray to 

 southern New England (Block I.) and Georges Bank; also Bermuda ;"i Madeira,i32 

 and recently reported from tropical West Africa (p. 511), but not known otherwise 

 from the eastern Atlantic. 



Species. All records of Manta from the Atlantic appear to refer to a single species, 

 M. birostris (Donndorff) 1798; the earliest reported locality for it was the coast of 

 South Carolina (see p. 512, footnote 179). The earliest report of a Devil Ray from the 

 Indo-Pacific, referable with certainty to Manta and not to its close relative Mobula., was 

 from the Red Sea in 1 841 as Ceratoptera ehrenbergii Muller and Henle.^^^ Since that time 

 Mantas have been reported from the western Pacific-Indian ocean area as ten additional 

 species, supposedly distinct from Manta birostris ;^^*' and two more species have been 

 reported from the Pacific Coast of America.^s 



The Mantas from all parts of the world resemble one another so closely in general 

 appearance that all of the supposed species that have been named from the western 

 Pacific-Indian Ocean region have been united recently with the Atlantic Manta birostris 

 under that name."^ But Manta hamiltoni of the Pacific Coast of Central America may 

 prove separable from M. birostris of the Atlantic"' by its color pattern. It would not be 

 astonishing should the Manta populations of different parts of the tropical oceans be 

 separated by morphological differences that are not apparent from the superficial ac- 

 counts of them that have appeared so far. The question can be settled only by critical 

 comparative study of actual specimens, which is a difficult matter because Mantas are 

 so large and are so seldom captured under conditions that favor detailed examination 

 of them. 



Manta birostris (Donndorff) 1798 



Giant Devil Ray 



Figures iii, 112, 116, 117 



Study Material. Juvenile male, 1 1 feet 5 inches wide, and parts of a female about 

 15 feet wide, from Bimini, Bahamas, in Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology; 

 also model, with photographs, of female about 1 7 feet wide, from west coast of Florida, 

 in American Museum of Natural History; sketches, measurements, color notes, draw- 

 ings, and photograph by F. Huber of a female 21 feet 2 inches wide, taken August 27, 

 1933 off Pt. Pleasant, New Jersey. 



Distinctive Characters. The cephalic fins of Manta., projecting forward, give it so 



131. Beebe and Tee-Van, Zoologica N. Y., 26, 1941: 278. 132. Maul, Lista Sist. Peixes Madeira, 1949: 140. 



133. Plagiost., 1841 : 187. The Raja banhsiana of LacepWe (Hist. Nat. Poiss., 4° ed., in BufFon, Hist. Nat., 2, [An. VIII] 

 1799-1800: 115, pi. 5, fig. 3) from the East Indies is also classed as a Manta by Fowler (Bull. U. S. nat. Mus., 100 

 [jj], 1941 : 483). But it may have been a Mobula, for no information is available as to the position of its mouth. 



134. For references, see Fowler (Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., 100 [13], 1941: 483) under Mania birostris. 



135. Manta raya Baer 1899 (Bull. Mus. Hist. nat. Paris, 5, 1899: 112) from Peru and Manta hamiltoni (Newman) 1849 

 from California and Central America; see Beebe and Tee-Van (Zoologica N. Y., 26, 1941: 274) for references. 



136. By Fowler (Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., 100 [xj], 1941: 483). 



137. Beebe and Tee-Van, Zoologica N. Y., 26, 1941: 276; Barton, Copeia, 1948: 146. 



