Author: (E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817)
Pteromylaeus bovinus (E. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Pteromylaeus bovinus (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: front lobe of pectoral fin under snout (subrostral lobe) rather long and a little pointed in front. Middle row of teeth in upper jaw 6-8 times as broad as long. Dorsal fin originating before pelvic fin tips. Colour: upper surfaces with 7-8 pale transverse streaks in juveniles, plain brown in adults; underside whitish, with tips of pectoral fins more or less brownish-red. Size: to 150 cm disc width.
Habitat: see family; moderately abundant. Food: see family. Reproduction: ovoviviparous; gestation about 6 months, with 4-6 young produced, having a disc width of about 45 cm at birth.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Madeira and Morocco northward to northern Portugal (but not the Azores); also, Mediterranean (most abundant along African coast), but not Black Sea. Elsewhere, southward to South Africa.
Complementary iconography. Bini, 1967: 187-188, fig.
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Lo Bianco, 1909: 671-672 | Tortonese, 1956: 282, fig. 155 (embryo).