A new species of whiptail stingray of the genus Dasyatis Rafinesque, 1810 from the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean (Chondrichthyes: Myliobatiformes: Dasyatidae)

Abstract

The new species is compared both with other Dasyatis species of the southwestern Atlantic and with similarly shaped species of Dasyatis from other areas of the world. The holotype was collected in Maraj Bay; near Colares Island, district of Colares, Bel m, Par State, Brazil. It differs from known Dasyatis species by the combination of the following characters: a diamond-shaped (rhomboid) disc; an elongate snout (preorbital distance ranges from 35.7 to 37.7 % in disc width); a dark, well defined band or dark blotches outlining the lower lips; a row of small tubercles along midline of disc from shoulder region to base of tail, presenting a widespread and random arrangement; posterior margins of pectoral fins uniformly rounded; triangular-shaped pelvic fins with posterior margin almost straight or slightly sinuous and tips exceeding the limits of the posterior margin of disc; dorsal caudal keel absent in the holotype, but vestigial in both paratypes.

Elasmobrânquios capturados pela pesca artesanal na costa sul do Paraná e norte de Santa Catarina, Brasil

“…A identificação taxonômica seguiu Figueiredo (1977), Castro (1983), Compagno (1984), Gadig (2001), Froese & Pauly (2003) e Santos & Carvalho (2004). A nomenclatura foi atualizada de acordo com Menezes et al (2003).…”

First Record of a Pregnant Female of Dasyatis hypostigma, with Description of the Embryos

“…The stingray Dasyatis hypostigma, a recently described species from Brazil Santos & Carvalho 2004, has been misidentified in earlier studies as D. say (Lesueur 1817), a species now known to be restricted to the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. D. hypostigma inhabits sand and mud bottoms in coastal shallow waters, and occurs from southeastern Brazil (~18°S) to Argentina (Santos & Carvalho 2004).…”

“…D. hypostigma inhabits sand and mud bottoms in coastal shallow waters, and occurs from southeastern Brazil (~18°S) to Argentina (Santos & Carvalho 2004). The ''butter stingray'', as the species is known by local fishermen, is with D. americana, D. guttata and some others, the most common batoid species captured as by-catch fauna in trawl fishing operations along the southeastern coast of Brazil (personal observation).…”

“…The ''butter stingray'', as the species is known by local fishermen, is with D. americana, D. guttata and some others, the most common batoid species captured as by-catch fauna in trawl fishing operations along the southeastern coast of Brazil (personal observation). It is a medium-size species, with a recorded maximum disc width of 580 mm (a female from off Rio de Janeiro) (Santos & Carvalho 2004).…”

PCR–RFLP analysis to identify four ray species of the genus Dasyatis (Elasmobranchii, Dasyatidae) fished along the southeastern and southern coast of Brazil

“…Within the genus Dasyatis, approximately 40 species are known to inhabit shallow tropical and temperate waters (McEachran and Carvalho, 2002). At least eight species of this genus are found in Brazil, and only four of these inhabit the southern and southeastern coast: Dasyatis hypostigma Santos and Carvalho (2004), Dasyatis americana, Dasyatis guttata (Bloch and Schneider, 1801), and Dasyatis centroura . Although D. hypostigma is restricted to the southwestern Atlantic Ocean (Charvet-Almeida and de Carvalho, 2006;Santos and Carvalho, 2004), D. guttata is distributed from southern Brazil to the southern Gulf of Mexico (Rosa and Furtado, 2004), and D. americana and D. centroura are dispersed throughout the northern Atlantic Ocean Rosa et al, 2007).…”