Records of poorly known batoid fishes from the north-western Indian Ocean (Chondrichthyes: Rhynchobatidae, Rhinobatidae, Dasyatidae, Mobulidae)

Abstract

Records are presented of several species of batoid fish from the north-western Indian Ocean that are poorly known, of taxonomic interest, or of conservation concern. For the Persian (Arabian) Gulf, the first records of Rhinobatos halavi, Himantura fai, and the first substantiated record of a devil ray (Mobulidae), provisionally identified as Mobula cf. eregoodootenkee, are presented. Literature on mobulids in the Persian Gulf area is briefly reviewed, and a historic record of Manta birostris extends the known range of this species to the Arabian Sea off Pakistan. New records of Himantura granulata from the Gulf of Aden and the Gulf of Aqaba are the first for the continental coast of the western Indian Ocean. The existence of a distinctive Rhynchobatus guitarfish from the Arabian Sea requiring taxonomic clarification is reported.