Mobulidae, Gill, 1893

Haque, Alifa Bintha, White, William T., Cavanagh, Rachel D., Biswas, Aparna Riti & Hossain, Nazia, 2021, New records of elasmobranchs in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh: further taxonomic research is essential, Zootaxa 5027 (2), pp. 211-230 : 223

Family Mobulidae

Two species of Mobula have previously been recorded from Bangladesh; Mobula mobular and M. kuhlii ( Hoq et al. 2011; Roy et al. 2014a). In this study, M. birostris , M. tarapacana , M. eregoodoo and M. thurstoni ( Figure 13 ) were recorded following examination of 97 mobulid specimens. Genetic analysis confirmed species identification for M. tarapacana , M. kuhlii and M. mobular , and the presence of either M. alfredi or M. birostris , but the NADH2 sequences alone cannot distinguish between these two species due to overlapping sequence polymorphism (G. Naylor, unpubl. data). This study confirms the presence of at least six mobulid species in Bangladesh; M. alfredi or M. birostris , M. eregoodoo , M. kuhlii , M. mobular , M. tarapacana and M. thurstoni where M. thurstoni has been reported for the first time with possible presence of M. alfredi .

Figures

FIGURE 13. Dorsal and ventral image of Mobula thurstoni from Cox’s Bazar (Female juvenile).