Author: (Bonnaterre, 1788)
Mobula moblular (Bonnaterre, 1788)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Mobula mobular (Bonnaterre, 1788) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: teeth in 150-160 vertical series in adults, flanges on the outer margins of adjacent gill-plates not fused together. Base of dorsal fin reaching beyond hind tips of pectoral fins; one or several serrated spines on top of tail behind dorsal fin. Upper surfaces with thornlets in adults; underside more densely covered, as also tail. Colour: upper surfaces dark brown to bluish-black; underside white. Size: to about 5.2 m disc width.
Habitat, etc.: see family.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Morocco (also the Azores) northward to northern Spain, also Channel and off south-west Ireland, whole of Mediterranean (but not Black Sea). Elsewhere, southward from the Canaries to Senegal; possibly also western Atlantic (New Jersey and Havana records may be this species).
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Tortonese, 1957: 45, fig. (embryos) | Capapé and Zaouali, 1976: 1, fig. 1-2 (embryos).