Triakidae, Gray, 1851

Biscoito, Manuel, Ribeiro, Cláudia & Freitas, Mafalda, 2018, Annotated checklist of the fishes of the archipelago of Madeira (NE Atlantic): I-Chondrichthyes, Zootaxa 4429 (3), pp. 459-494 : 469

Family Triakidae

* Galeorhinus galeus (Linnaeus, 1758) —Cação, Tope shark

Lowe 1838: 194 (as Galeus vulgaris )

Noronha & Sarmento 1934: 102 and 139 | Nobre 1935: 424 (as Galeus galeu s)

Belloc 1934: 130 (as Galeus canis )

Fowler 1936: 57 | Noronha & Sarmento 1948: 97 | Maul 1948: 138 | Nunes 1953: 81 | Albuquerque 1954 –56: 98 | Compagno 1973: 27 | Cadenat & Blache 1981: 210–212 | Branstetter 1984b: 118 | Sanches 1986: 66 | Lloris et al. 1991: 228 | Wirtz et al. 2008: 3 | Carneiro et al. 2014: 11.

Distribution in Macaronesia. Madeira, Azores ( Santos et al. 1997; Arruda 1997; Porteiro et al. 2010), Canary Islands ( Brito et al. 2002; Brito Hernández & Sancho Rafel 2003) and Cape Verde ( Reiner 1996, 2005; Wirtz et al. 2013).

Remarks. there are five registers in MMF collections, including skin, jaws and formalin preserved specimens, the first dated from 1944 and the last one from 2013. Maul (1948) refers as frequent all year, coastal, confirmed by recent observations.

* Mustelus mustelus (Linnaeus, 1758) —Caneja; Smooth-hound

Vinciguerra 1882 –83: 608 (as Mustelus vulgaris )

Roule 1919: 115 (as Galeorhinus mustelus )

Belloc 1934: 130 (as Mustelus laevis )

Nobre 1935: 428 | Fowler 1936: 61 | Noronha & Sarmento 1948: 97 | Maul 1948: 138 | Albuquerque 1954 –56: 105–106 | Compagno 1973: 28, 1984b: 419 | Cadenat & Blache 1981: 221–222 | Branstetter 1984b: 119 | Sanches 1986: 67 | Lloris et al. 1991: 233 | Wirtz et al. 2008: 3 | Carneiro et al. 2014: 11.

Distribution in Macaronesia. Madeira, Azores ( Santos et al. 1997 stated that the first and only known record of the species to the Azores is based on Belloc (1934) and point that its occurrence in the region needs further documentation), Canary Islands ( Brito et al. 2002; Brito Hernández & Sancho Rafel 2003) and Cape Verde ( Reiner 1996, 2005; Menezes et al. 2004; Wirtz et al. 2013).

Remarks. Vinciguerra (1882–83) states that the two specimens from Madeira were young and difficult to recognize the species’ external characters. He assigned them to M. vulgaris Müller & Henle, 1839 , based on the position of the dorsal fin insertion in relation to the internal margin of pectoral fin (over the middle of the internal margin of pectoral fin). Although M. vulgaris Müller & Henle, 1839 in part is now considered as a synonym of M. asterias Cloquet, 1819 ( Compagno 1973) , the character pointed by Vinciguerra clearly falls under M. mustelus . Fowler (1936) and Maul (1948) follow this reasoning, the latter consubstantiated with specimens in the MMF collection, re-determined by us. On this point we do not agree with Compagno (1973) who considers Fowler’s (1936), Noronha & Sarmento’s (1948) and Maul’s (1948) records of M. mustelus as M. asterias (see remarks under the latter in the next category).

In MMF collections there are thirteen records of M. mustelus , including formalin preserved specimens, skin and jaws, the first dated from 1944 and the last one dated from 2013. Maul (1948) refers the species as frequent all year and coastal. Commonly seen around the island of Madeira all year round, with juveniles being seen in schools nearshore.