Mobula munkiana is a species of cartilaginous fish of the genus mobula of the family of bracken rays of the order of the caudate - shaped superorder of rays . These stingrays live in the tropical waters of the eastern Pacific . They are found in the coastal zone and in the open sea. The maximum recorded width of the disk is 220 cm. The pectoral fins of these slopes fuse with the head, forming a diamond-shaped disk whose width exceeds the length. The snout is massive, flat, the front edge is almost straight with a notch in the middle. Part of the pectoral fins is transformed into the so-called head fins. The dorsal fin is located at the base of the tail; there is no spine on the tail. The dorsal surface of the disc is dark purple or lilac gray. Behind the eyes lies a black-brown narrow strip [1] .
| Mobula munkiana |
| Scientific classification |
|---|
| No rank : | Bilateral symmetrical |
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| International scientific name |
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Mobula munkiana Notarbartolo di Sciara , 1987 |
| Security status |
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Close to vulnerableIUCN 3.1 Near Threatened : 60198 |
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Like other caudate- shaped Mobula munkiana reproduce by egg-production . Embryos develop in the womb, feeding on the yolk and histotroph . There is 1 newborn in the litter. The diet consists mainly of plankton, in particular small crustaceans. These slopes are the subject of commercial fishing [2] [3] .
Content
For the first time, a new species was scientifically described in 1987 by the Italian ecologist Giuseppe di Chiara [1] . It was named after the American oceanographer Walter Heinrich Munk [4] . The morphological similarity of mobiles often leads to errors in species identification [3] .
Mobula munkiana live in the tropical waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Colombia , Costa Rica , Ecuador , including the Galapagos Islands , El Salvador , Guatemala , Honduras , Mexico , Nicaragua , Panama and Peru . They are found in the coastal zone [3] .
The pectoral fins of Mobula munkiana , the base of which is located behind the eyes, fuse with the head, forming a diamond-shaped flat disc, the width of which exceeds the length, the edges of the fins are in the form of pointed (βwingsβ). The head is wide and flat, with eyes wide apart. Behind the eyes are sprays . The front part of the pectoral fins is transformed into the so-called head fins. At the base of the tail is a small dorsal fin. There is no spine at the base of the tail. The tail is long, whip-shaped. The dorsal surface of the disc is dark purple or lilac-gray, the ventral side is white [1] . On the ventral surface of the disk there are 5 pairs of gill slits , mouth and nostrils [5] . The maximum recorded disk width is 220 cm [2] .
Mobula munkiana are found singly and in small groups, and also form numerous flocks [2] . Probably commit migrations. There is no segregation by sex, but there is a separation of slopes by size [3] .
Like other caudate-shaped, these rays belong to ovoviviparous fish. Embryos develop in the womb, feeding on the yolk and histotroph. The most has one functional ovary located on the left. There is one newborn in the litter with a disc about 35β36 cm wide. Males and females reach puberty with a disc width of 87 cm and 97 cm, respectively. The diet consists of plankton , in particular shrimp [3] .
Cestodes of Hemionchos mobulae [6] and Parachristianella trygonis [7] parasitize Mobula munkiana .
Mobula munkiana are of interest for commercial fishing. They are caught using surface gillnets and trawls. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assigned this species a conservation status of βClose to Vulnerabilityβ [3] .
- β 1 2 3 Notobartolo-di-Sciara, G. Natural history of the rays of the genus Mobula in the Gulf of California // Fishery Bulletin. - 1987. - Vol. 86, No. (1). - P. 45-66.
- β 1 2 3 Mobula munkiana in the FishBase database.
- β 1 2 3 4 5 6 Mobula munkiana . The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species .
- β Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Fish Name Etymology Database (Neopr.) . The ETYFish Project . Date of treatment October 6, 2015.
- β Bigelow, HB and Schroeder WC Sawfishes, guitarfishes, skates and rays = In Tee-Van J. et al. (eds.) Fishes of the western North Atlantic. Part two .. - New Haven, Sears Found. Mar. Res., Yale Univ., 1953. - P. 1-514.
- β Campbell, RA & Beberidge, I. Three new genera and seven new species of trypanorhynch cestodes (family Eutetrarhynchidae ) from manta rays, Mobula spp. ( Mobulidae ) from the Gulf of California, Mexico // Folia Parasitologica. - 2006. - Vol. 53, No. (4) . - P. 255-275.
- β Campbell Ronald A. , Beveridge Ian. A New Species and New Records of Parachristianella Dollfus, 1946 (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha) from the Gulf of California, Mexico // Comparative Parasitology. - 2007. - July ( t. 74 , No. 2 ). - S. 218-228 . - ISSN 1525-2647 . - DOI : 10.1654 / 4261.1 .
