The lesser devil ray (''Mobula hypostoma'') is a
ray in the family
Mobulidae
The Mobulidae (manta rays and devilfishes) are a family of rays consisting mostly of large species living in the open ocean rather than on the sea bottom.
Taxonomy
The Mobulidae have been variously considered a subfamily of the Myliobatidae by ...
. They occur along the coasts of the western Atlantic, from
North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...
to northern
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
.
Habitat
These rays live in shallow waters and can be found singly or in large shoals.
Diet
They feed on mostly
crustaceans
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...
, but will sometimes feed on shoals of smaller fish.
Description
True to their name, lesser devil rays are relatively small, with a maximum width of about . They have smaller cephalic fins than their larger
manta
Manta or mantas may refer to:
* Manta ray, large fish belonging to the genus ''Manta''
Arts and entertainment Fictional entities
* Manta (comics), a character in American Marvel Comics publications
* Manta (''Uridium''), a spaceship in the Br ...
cousins, and have longer spineless tails.
References
*
*
*
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4548397
lesser devil ray
Fish of the Western Atlantic
Fish of the Dominican Republic
Vulnerable fish
lesser devil ray