Rajidae

Dipturus oxyrinchus (Linnaeus, 1758) —Longnosed skate

Recorded from Madeira by Stehmann & Bürkel in Whitehead et al. (1984: 177-178) under the name Raja (Dipturus) oxyrinchus, on the basis of Lowe's (1839: 20) reference to Raia oxyrhynchus . Considered “rare” by Maul (1949).

Leucoraja fullonica (Linnaeus, 1758) —Shagreen ray

Recorded from Madeira by Stehmann & Bürkel in Whitehead et al. (1984: 179-180), and Stehmann in Quéro et al. (1990: 35), under the name Raja (Leucoraja) fullonica . Listed by Maul (1949). * Raja brachyura (Lafont, 1873) —Blonde ray

Raja clavata Linnaeus, 1758 —Thornback ray

Raja clavata is quite similar to the closely related and common Raja maderensis Lowe, 1838; therefore, records of R. clavata from Madeira (including that of Stehmann & Bürkel in Whitehead et al., 1984: 185) may actually be based on R. maderensis and need confirmation. The alternative possibility, suggested by the genetic analysis of Chevolot et al. (2006) on Azorean animals (which very much resemble those from Madeira) is that Raja maderensis is but a colour morph of R. clavata . * Raja maderensis Lowe, 1838 —Madeira ray

See remarks under Raja clavata .

Raja miraletus Linnaeus, 1758 —Brown ray

We consider this a doubtful record.

* Dasyatis pastinaca (Linnaeus, 1758) —Common stingray

*Pteryplatytrygon violacea (Bonaparte, 1832) —Pelagic stingray

Recorded from Madeira by Biscoito and Wirtz (1994) under the name Dasyatis violacea .

* Taeniura grabata (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817)—Round stingray Recorded from Madeira by Biscoito and Wirtz (1994).