Aetobatus ocellatus (Kuhl in Hasselt 1823)

Andréfouët, Serge, Chen, Wei-Jen, Kinch, Jeff, Mana, Ralph, Russell, Barry C., Tully, Dean & White, William T., 2019, Checklist of the marine and estuarine fishes of New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, western Pacific Ocean, with 810 new records, Zootaxa 4588 (1), pp. 1-360 : 46-47

Aetobatus ocellatus (Kuhl in Hasselt 1823) — Spotted eagle ray ( Fig. 10 )

Status at New Ireland. First recorded from southern New Ireland by Gochfeld (1996); subsequently reported from Kavieng region by White et al. (2018: 281), White & Ko'ou (2018: 65), based on specimens photographed at Lissenung Island by Dietmar Amon on 30 Apr. 2008, at 24 m depth by Dean Tully on 25 June 2014, and by D. Borcherds.

Distribution and habitat. New Ireland: 2, 3.—General distribution: Red Sea, East and South Africa east to Hawaiian Islands, north to southern Japan, south to northern Australia. Found solitary or in small groups over soft bottoms and near coral reefs, often well offshore, 1–100 m depth. Transitional water and marine.

Figures

FIGURE 10. Aetobatus ocellatus (Kuhl in Hasselt 1823), Lissenung Island, Kavieng District, 30 Apr. 2008 (underwater photograph: Dietmar Amon).