276 Shark and Covipany 



Texas, of course, claims the record for the number of boats towed by 

 a Giant Devil ray. The record is based on an account of the harpooning 

 of such a ray off Port Aransas. The ray, it's said, sped off with 14 boats 

 strung out behind it. 



The Devil ray family— so called because of their cephalic fins, which, 

 when rolled and projected forward, have the appearance of horns- 

 ranges the world. They are found in the warm-temperate zones of all 

 oceans, and the Mediterranean. Of their common names— Devil ray. 

 Devil fish, Manta— undoubtedly Manta is the best known in the English- 

 speaking world. 



Aiantas throughout the world are similar in their habits. They leap; 

 they live near the surface; they all apparently take in water for res- 

 piration through their mouths instead of through their spiracles, which 

 are relatively small. This latter characteristic appears to set them apart 

 from all other Batoids. 



But there are also great differences between the half-dozen or so 

 known species of Mantas. The family is divided into three genera on the 

 basis of an odd distinction: Mobula, species that have teeth in both 

 jaws; Ceratobatis, species that have teeth in the upper jaw only; Manta, 

 species that have teeth in the lower jaw only (Also, both Mobula and 

 Ceratobatis species have mouths on the lower surface of the head; 

 Manta species have mouths at the end of and extending across the head.) 



The Lesser Devil ray, or Manta {Mobula hypostoma Bancroft, 1831), 

 is found in the coastal waters of the western Atlantic, from Brazil to 

 North Carolina and occasionally to New Jersey. It has also been reported 

 along the coast of Senegal, West Africa. It grows to a width of about 4 

 feet. 



Russell Coles, in his many observations of Selachians along the North 

 Carolina coast, frequently reported on these Lesser Devil rays. Once 

 he saw several of them pursuing a school of minnows and "rushing right 

 up on the sand . . . until their bodies were nearly half out of water; 

 but in an instant they were off and scattered out to sea." Coles said that 

 the Mantas kept their cephalic fins rolled until they neared the minnows. 

 Then the fins "open, and, meeting below the mouth, form a funnel, 

 through which the 'minnows' are carried into the mouth. On the instant 

 that this rush is over these fins again close up tightly." 



The cephalic fins which stick out from the Manta's head like stumpy 

 arms are said to close instantly around anything that touches the front 

 of its head. Reportedly, through this reflex action, a school of Mantas 

 once supposedly affixed themselves to the posts of a fence that ran out 

 into shallow water. Occasionally, too, they may grasp an anchor line in 

 this way, possibly trying to clean off parasites. The grasping power of 

 the cephalic fins is really quite limited and weak, according to those 



