First mediterranean records of Spinetail Devil Ray, Mobula japanica (Elasmobranchii: Rajiformes: Mobulidae).

Christian Capapé (1) , S. Rafrafi-Nouira , O. El Kamel-Moutalibi , M. Boumaiza (2) , Christian Reynaud (1)

1 LIRDEF - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Recherche en Didactique, Éducation et Formation
2 Univ Carthage, Fac Sci Bizerte, LBE, Unite Hydrobiol Littorale & Limn, Bizerte, Tunisia

Captures of 11 spinetail devil rays, Mobula japanica (Müller et Henle, 1841), from the northern coast of Tunisian (central Mediterranean) are reported in the present paper. Of these 11 specimens, fi ve specimens were described. These captures constitute the fi rst records of the species in the Tunisian waters, but also in the Mediterranean Sea, extending its distribution. This unusual occurrence of M. japanica is probably due to a migration from the eastern tropical Atlantic into the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Mots clés: Chondrichthyes; migration; Tunisian coast; white-tipped dorsal fi n; gill fi lter plates; morphometric measurements

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Zoologie des vertébrés

Christian Capapé, S. Rafrafi-Nouira, O. El Kamel-Moutalibi, M. Boumaiza, Christian Reynaud. First mediterranean records of Spinetail Devil Ray, Mobula japanica (Elasmobranchii: Rajiformes: Mobulidae).. ACta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria, 2015, 45 (2), pp.211-215. ⟨10.3750/aip2015.45.2.13⟩. ⟨hal-01391760⟩