California eagle ray
| California eagle ray | ||||||||||||
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California eagle ray ( Myliobatis californica ) |
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| Myliobatis californica | ||||||||||||
| Gill , 1865 |
The California eagle ray ( Myliobatis californica ), often also called bat ray , is a species of ray that occurs near the coast in the eastern Pacific at depths of one to 46 meters. The exact distribution area extends from Oregon to the Galapagos Islands and also includes the Gulf of California .
features
With its long, whip-like tail, the California eagle ray reaches a maximum length of 1.80 meters, but usually stays at a length of one meter. The head, torso and pectoral fins create a diamond-like body profile. The head is short and rounded, the upper and lower jaws are covered with a chewing apparatus consisting of many flat teeth. The cartilaginous fish are brownish, olive or blackish-brown on the upper side and unpatterned. The ventral side is white. On its first third, just behind the small dorsal fin, the tail has a short, barbed , poisonous sting. A caudal fin is missing. While the primitive guitar fish , as well as the sawfish and the jitter Roche-like move around like most sharks by strain snaking of the body and the tail fin and the genuine rays get around by undulating movements of their large pectoral fins, California eagle rays as all the other beat eagle rays like birds with their wings with the enlarged pectoral fins.
Way of life
The California eagle ray lives alone or in groups close to the coast in shallow lagoons, sandy and muddy bays, but also in rocky surroundings and in kelp forests. Every now and then it digs into the ground. It feeds mainly on bottom-dwelling crustaceans , molluscs and worms. Like all eagle rays, it is ovoviviparous . The mating season is summer. The young rays, usually ten or a little less, are born the following summer.
literature
- Eschmeyer, Herald, Hamann: Pacific Coast Fishes , Peterson Field Guides, ISBN 0-395-33188-9
Web links
- California eagle ray on Fishbase.org (English)
- Myliobatis californicus onthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Listed by: Cailliet, GM & Smith, WD, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2013.