Devil fish

Jumping Mobula - rays

The Devil Rays ( Mobulinae ) are living in the open water inhabitants of tropical and subtropical seas. There are two genera: Mobula with nine species with lengths of one meter to 5.30 meters and the manta ray (Manta ) with two types and lengths up to 8 meters and diameters up to 6.70 meters. The best-known type of this subfamily is the giant manta (Manta birostris ).

Features

Devil Rays have a rhombic shaped body plate that is wider than long. The head is flat and wide, to lead with side -set eyes, a large, transversely positioned mouth and characteristic, front-facing head fins, which serve plankton in the big mouth. Teeth and lying directly behind the eyes spray holes are very small, the large gill slits. The injection ports are functional. Devil Rays breathe through the mouth. The food is filtered by a fish trap apparatus from the breath of water and protected from clogging the gills. The tail is whip-like, at the base of the tail there is a small triangular dorsal fin. The pelvic fins are small and lie between the broad triangular pectoral fins.

Way of life

Devil Rays live pelagic solitary, in pairs or in small groups and feed on zooplankton, shrimp, sometimes small fish. They differ from other rays by their mode of locomotion. While the primitive guitar fish, as well as the sawfish and the dither Roche -like, like most sharks, move through stem wiggling of the body and the tail fin and the rights skates are propelled by undulating movements of their large pectoral fins, beat Devil Rays as any other eagle rays with the fins, similar to like birds with their wings. The Devil Rays are ovoviviparous.

Genera and species

• Genus Manta Bancroft, 1829, terminally mouth, teeth only in the lower jaw Riffmanta (Manta alfredi ) ( Kreft, 1868)
• Giant Manta (Manta birostris ( Walbaum, 1792) )

• Mobula eregoodootenkee ( Bleeker, 1859).
• Mobula hypostoma ( Bancroft, 1831).
• Japanese Devil Rays ( Mobula Japanica ) ( Müller & Henle, 1841).
• Mobula kuhlii ( Müller & Henle, 1841).
• Mobula mobular ( Bonnaterre, 1788).
• Mobula munkiana Notarbartolo -di- Sciara, 1987.
• Mobula rochebrunei ( Vaillant, 1879).
• Mobula tarapacana ( Philippi, 1893).
• Mobula thurstoni ( Lloyd, 1908)