Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Raja (Raja) miraletus Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Raja miraletus Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: upper surface prickly only in young, nearly smooth in adults (except for pattern of thorns); underside smooth. Colour: upper surface ochre to reddish-brown with scattered dark spots; a large circular eyespot on inner centre of each pectoral, its centre light blue, encircled by a dark blue inner and yellow to orange outer ring; underside white. Size: to about 60 cm TL.
Habitat: benthic, from shallow waters to 300 m, mainly 50 150 m; common. Food: all kinds of benthic animals, no preferences. Reproduction: oviparous; egg-cases laid spring to summer, 45-52 by 30-35 mm (excluding horns). Abundance: common; regularly landed along subtropical and tropical coasts, locally in the Mediterranean.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Madeira and Morocco northward to northern Portugal; also whole of Mediterranean. Elsewhere, southward to South Africa and south-western part of Indian Ocean.
Complementary iconography. Clark, 1931, in Faune ichthyol. Atl. N., fiche 36 Bini, 1967: 145-146.
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Capapé and Quignard, 1974: 39, 5 fig.