Round ribbontail ray

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Round ribbontail ray
A large stingray with a mottled color pattern and thick body and tail, swimming over sand
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Superorder: Batoidea
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Dasyatidae
Genus: Taeniurops
Species:
T. meyeni
Binomial name
Taeniurops meyeni
World map with blue coloring around the periphery of the Indian Ocean, from South Africa to the Arabian Peninsula to Southeast Asia as far as Japan and Australia, as well as in a region of Micronesia and around the Galapagos and Cocos Islands in the eastern Pacific
Range of the round ribbontail ray
Synonyms
  • Dasyatis melanospilos (Bleeker, 1853)
  • Taeniura melanospilos Bleeker, 1853
  • Taeniura mortoni Macleay, 1883,
  • Taeniura meyeni Müller & Henle, 1841

The round ribbontail ray or blotched fantail ray,

pectoral fin disc covered by small tubercles
on top, and a relatively short tail bearing a deep ventral fin fold. In addition, it has a variable but distinctive light and dark mottled pattern on its upper surface, and a black tail.

Generally

habitat degradation across much of its range. As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as Vulnerable
.

Taxonomy and phylogeny

As Taeniurops meyeni, the round ribbontail ray was described by German biologists

ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker to a juvenile specimen from Java, in a 1953 volume of the scientific journal Natuurkundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië.[2][3]

Other common names for the round ribbontail ray include black spotted ray, black-blotched stingray, black-spotted stingray, fantail ray, fantail stingray, giant reef ray and speckled stingray.[4] In Australia, it is one of several species referred to as "bull ray".[5] A minority of authors place this species with the river stingrays in the family Potamotrygonidae.[1] Preliminary morphological examination has suggested that the round ribbontail ray is more related to Dasyatis and Indo-Pacific Himantura than to the congeneric bluespotted ribbontail ray (Taeniura lymma), which is closer to the amphi-American Styracura (S. pacifica and S. schmardae) and the river stingrays.[6]

Etymology

The ray is named in honor of

Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen (1804-1840), a physician and a botanist, who collected or supplied the type specimens.[7]

Description

Overhead view of a stingray on a reef, showing its nearly circular shape
Characteristic features of the round ribbontail ray are its rounded, thick disc and mottled coloration.

The round ribbontail ray has a thick

papillae on the floor, with the outermost pair smaller and set apart from the others.[8] There are 37–46 tooth rows in the upper jaw and 39–45 tooth rows in the lower jaw.[9] The teeth are small with a deep groove across the crown and are arranged in a dense quincunx pattern into flattened surfaces.[10]

The pelvic fins are small and narrow.[8] The tail is relatively short, not exceeding the width of the disc, and bears one (rarely two) long, serrated stinging spine on the upper surface. The base of the tail is broad; past the spine, the tail rapidly thins, and bears a deep ventral fin fold that runs to the tail tip.[8] The upper surface of the disc and tail are roughened by a uniform covering of small, widely spaced granules. There is also a midline row of sharp tubercles on the back, with two shorter rows alongside. The first of these tubercles develop at a length of around 46 cm (18 in), over the "shoulders" and in the single midline row.[10]

The dorsal coloration is light to dark gray, brown-gray, or purplish, becoming most intense towards the fin margins, with a highly variable pattern of irregular darker mottling and white speckles or streaks. The tail past the spine, including the fin fold, is uniformly black, while the underside is creamy-white with darker fin margins and additional dots. Young rays are more plain in coloration than adults.[10][11] One of the largest stingray species, the round ribbontail ray can grow to 1.8 m (5.9 ft) across, 3.3 m (11 ft) long, and 150 kg (330 lb) in weight.[3]

Distribution and habitat

A stingray swimming over coral rubble and sand
The round ribbontail ray frequents sandy patches near coral reefs.

The round ribbontail ray has a wide distribution in the

Ningaloo Reef off Western Australia to Stradbroke Island off Queensland, including Lord Howe Island.[8] In the easternmost portion of its range, it has been reported from Cocos Island and the Galápagos Islands, with individuals possibly dispersing as far as Central America.[4]

estuaries.[10][12]

Biology and ecology

Side view of a stingray resting on a patch of sand beneath a coral ledge
The round ribbontail ray is relatively inactive during the day, often resting on sand near reef structures.

The round ribbontail ray has

parasites of this species include the monogenean Dasybatotrema spinosum,[14] Dendromonocotyle pipinna,[15] Neoentobdella garneri and N. taiwanensis,[16] and the nematode Echinocephalus overstreeti.[17]

Little information is available on the life history of the round ribbontail ray. Like other stingrays, it is

La Niña, which brings cooler temperatures. During these periods a single female may be pursued by dozens of males.[13] Females bear litters of up to seven pups, each measuring 33–35 cm (13–14 in) across and 67 cm (26 in) long.[1] Off South Africa, birthing may take place in the summer.[18] Males attain sexual maturity at a disc width of 1.0–1.1 m (3.3–3.6 ft); the maturation size of females is unknown.[1]

Human interactions

Overhead view of a stingray swimming just beneath the surface in very shallow water close to a beach
A round ribbontail ray in the Maldives, where it is a valuable ecotourist draw.

The round ribbontail ray is not aggressive and has been known to approach and investigate divers.[10] However, if harassed it can inflict a severe wound with its venomous tail spine. This species has been responsible for at least one recorded fatality of a diver who was stabbed while attempting to ride the ray. The round ribbontail ray is popular with ecotourist divers because of its size and spectacular appearance.[1][11]

The

trawls. One region where it is heavily pressured is in Indonesian waters, where it and other large rays are taken intentionally and otherwise by tangle netters, longliners, and trawlers operating off Java, Bali, New Guinea, and Lombok. All landed individuals are brought to market for human consumption.[1]

Off South Africa, the round ribbontail ray is captured incidentally by

Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs). Furthermore, a portion of its Australian range lies within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. This species has also been listed under Least Concern in the Maldives where, due to the tourist value of rays, the government has created protected marine reserves and banned the export of rays in 1995 and ray skins in 1996.[1]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-4.RLTS.T60162A68646736.en
    . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^ Eschmeyer, W.N., ed. Catalog of Fishes electronic version (February 19, 2010) Archived August 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on February 25, 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d Bester, C. Biological Profiles: Blotched Fantail Ray. Florida Museum of Natural History Ichthyology Department. Retrieved on February 25, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2010). "Taeniura meyeni" in FishBase. February 2010 version.
  5. ^ Bull ray, stingray spines Archived 2006-08-21 at the Wayback Machine. Julian Rocks. Retrieved on February 25, 2010.
  6. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1996.tb02189.x
    .
  7. ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (22 September 2018). "Order MYLIOBATIFORMES (Stingrays)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  8. ^
    ISBN 978-0-674-03411-2
    .
  9. ISBN 1-86872-890-0
    .
  10. ^
    ISBN 0-8047-2289-7
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 1-55209-629-7
    .
  12. ^
    ISBN 0-930118-18-9
    .
  13. ^
    ISBN 3-925919-33-3
    .
  14. ^ Timofeeva, T.A. (1983). "New representatives of monocotylids (Monogenea: Monocotylidae) from cartilaginous fishes of the South China and Yellow Seas". Trudy Zoologicheskogo Instituta. 121: 35–47.
  15. S2CID 34868807
    .
  16. S2CID 28685675
    .
  17. ^ Deardorff, T.L. & R.C. Ko (1983). "Echinocephalus overstreeti sp. N (Nematoda, Gnathostomatidae) in the stingray, Taeniura melanospilos Bleeker, from the Marquesas Islands, with comments on E. sinensis Ko 1975". Proceedings of the Helminthological Society of Washington. 50 (2): 285–293.
  18. ^
    ISBN 1-86825-394-5
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taeniura meyeni.
Wikispecies has information related to Taeniurops meyeni.

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