The smallest devil ray. It schools in thousands and leaps clear of the water, landing flat with a report that carries.
To about 1.1 m across the disc, dark above and white below, with pointed wings and small cephalic lobes rolled at the front of the head. It is the smallest of the devil rays and it is separated from a manta by size, by the mouth being under the head rather than at the front, and by the numbers it moves in.
It schools in thousands and it leaps: individuals come clear of the water and land flat with a report that carries a long way, and nobody has settled why. In the Galapagos and at Cocos it appears as a wall of animals in open water and then is gone. It has no sting.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.