Aetobatus narinari (Euphrasen, 1790)

Jones, Christian M., Driggers Iii, William B., Hannan, Kristin M., Hoffmayer, Eric R., Jones, Lisa M. & Raredon, Sandra J., 2020, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes inhabiting the northern Gulf of Mexico Part 1: Batoidea, Zootaxa 4803 (2), pp. 281-315 : 300

Aetobatus narinari (Euphrasen, 1790) —spotted eagle ray, whitespotted eagle ray

Synonyms:

Aetobatis latirostris Dumeril, 1861

Aetobatis narinari (Euphrasen, 1790)

Muliobatis marcgravii Billberg, 1833

Raja narinari Euphrasen, 1790

Raja tajara Bonnaterre, 1788

Distribution. This species is distributed throughout the northern GOM, from the Texas/ Mexico border to southern Florida. It is regularly captured in shallow coastal waters but has also been recorded out to 150 m in depth during NMFS SEFSC trawl surveys.

First Record in GOM. The first record of this species from the northern GOM was a report by Bean (1885) of a specimen ( USNM 37196 ) collected sometime before May 21 st, 1885 (when it was received by the USNM) near Cedar Keys , Florida .

Remarks. This species, once believed to be circumtropical in distribution, was recently shown to be a complex of three closely related but distinct species; with Aeotobatus narinari occupying the Atlantic Ocean, Aetobatus laticeps Gill, 1865 occupying the eastern Pacific Ocean, and Aetobatus ocellatus (Kuhl, 1823) occupying the Indo-West and Central Pacific ( White and Last 2016a).

Conservation Status. Near Threatened