Mary Jean Fishel, age 12, of Clarksville TN, for her question:

What is a devilfish?

This name is sometimes given to the giant octopus of the deep ocean. But more often, the big manta ray of tropical waters is called the devilfish. Strange to say# neither the octopus nor the ray is very devilish in character and neither of them is a true fish.  The big octopus is the giant of the mollusk clan. The ray has gristle instead of bones and his scales and gills are unlike those of a true fish. He is a chondrichthyep or gristle fish, which makes him cousin to the sharks and the skates.

Manta Ray Devilfish is shaped like a monster bat. His big triangular wings may measure 25 feet from tip to tip. His fleshy body with its long whip tail may measure 17 feet or more. Seen close up, the ray is far from handsome. His mouth is a yard wide. On either side of this big mouth there is a fleshy arm three to four feet long. These arms are really special fins called cephalic fins, or head fins, Mr. Ray uses them to scoop food into his mouth.

Sometimes the cephalic fins are held out from the body and curved. They look like a pair of horns, and this is most probably why the manta ray got the name devilfish. Though he is no beauty., the ray is certainly graceful in the water. The great fleshy wings tapering towards the ends, are held out flat in the water. They gently flap or wave up and down like the wings of a giant bird,

The big ray may weigh one and a half tons, and he is always in fighting trim.' When harpooned with one, two or even three spears he is far from defeated. He still can drag the fishermen and their small boats for many miles.

When scared, he can lift his whole body out    of the water, landing with a loud thud and a big flat splash.

So far as we know, the manta ray does not attack unless he is provoked. The most damage he does is to capsize a boat load of fishermen. Certainly he is not interested in eating the fishermen, The roof of his great mouth is lined with curtains of whalebone which he uses to filter his food from the seawater, His favorite food is the small crustaceans found in floating plankton. He crushes them with the rather weak teeth along his lower jaw.

The manta ray is a native of warm and tropical seas. He is found in the southern coastal waters around the United States and is quite common in the warm, brilliant blue Gulf of Mexico. Mrs. Ray gives birth to live babies and Junior is a whopping 28 to 30 pounds at birth.