Leopard whipray
Encyclopedia
The leopard whipray is a little-known species
of stingray
in the family
Dasyatidae, found in the Indian
and Pacific Ocean
s from South Africa
to Australia
. It is found close to shore at depths shallower than 70 m (229.7 ft), over soft substrates
. Attaining a width of 1.8 m (5.9 ft), this species has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc with a pointed snout and an extremely long, whip-like tail without fin folds. Adult rays have a leopard
-like dorsal pattern of dark brown rings on a yellowish brown background, as well as a row of enlarged, heart-shaped dermal denticles along the midline of the disc. Newborns and small juveniles have large, solid dark spots and few denticles. The leopard whipray is caught by fisheries in many parts of its range, primarily for meat.
(H. undulata or its synonym, H. fava) in literature; all three are closely similar in size, shape, and coloration. It was described as a distinct species by Peter Last and Mabel Manjaji-Matsumoto in a 2008 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
CSIRO publication, and given the specific epithet leoparda in reference to its coloration. The type specimen is a female 1.1 m (3.6 ft) across, collected from the Gulf of Carpentaria
northwest of Weipa, Queensland
. Another common name
for this species is the undulate whipray. It belongs to a larger 'uarnak' species complex
that also contains H. astra, H. fai, H. gerrardi, H. jenkinsii, H. toshi, H. uarnak, and H. undulata.
region, the leopard whipray has been reported from off KwaZulu-Natal
, South Africa
, eastern India
and Sri Lanka
, throughout Southeast Asia
including the Philippines
, southern Japan
and Taiwan
, New Guinea
, and northern Australia
from Coral Bay
to the Cape York Peninsula
. Bottom-dwelling in nature, the leopard whipray is found close inshore over soft-bottomed habitat
s. It is known to occur to a depth of 70 m (229.7 ft).
s. Between the long, narrow nostrils is a wide, skirt-shaped flap of skin with a finely fringed posterior margin. The mouth is strongly bow-shaped, with shallow furrows at the corners. There are four short papillae (nipple-like structures) on the floor of the mouth, as a central pair and a much smaller outer pair; papillae are also found on the lower jaw. The teeth are small, conical, and blunt, numbering around 59 rows in the upper jaw. The five pairs of gill slit
s are S-shaped. The pelvic fins are fairly slender; males have stout claspers.
The very thin, whip-like tail measures 2.5–3.8 times as long as the disc, and bears usually one serrated stinging spine on top about half a disc width behind the tail base; there are no fin folds. Adults have a broad band of tiny, closely spaced granules extending from before the eyes, onto to the tail. At the center of the disc, there is a midline row of up to 15 enlarged, heart-shaped denticles, with the two largest ones located one after the other between the "shoulders". There are no enlarged denticles on the base of the tail. When born, this species is grayish to brownish above with large black spots, a row of dark spots on either side of the tail until the sting, and beyond it alternating dark and light rings. The spots hollow out at around a disc width of 55 cm (21.7 in), such as that large juveniles and adults are mostly covered by a leopard-like pattern of large, dark brown rings on a yellowish-brown background. The dark and light rings on the tail fade ventrally to become saddles. The underside is uniformly white. This ray has two alternate color morph
s that have yet to be described.
s and small fishes. Like other stingrays, it is aplacental viviparous, with the developing embryo
s sustained by histotroph ("uterine milk") produced by the mother. The newborns measure roughly 20 cm (7.9 in) across and 92 cm (36.2 in) long, smaller than in H. uarnak and H. undulata, and have few or no denticles. Also in contrast to those two species, young leopard whiprays 50 cm (19.7 in) across have still not developed the dorsal denticle band. Sexual maturity
is attained at 70–80 cm (27.6–31.5 in) across for males. Known parasites of this species include the tapeworms Parachristianella indonesiensis and P. baverstocki.
and probably elsewhere, it is heavily fished for its meat and possibly also skin and cartilage
, using bottom trawls, tangle net
s, and longlines. Most individuals caught in eastern Indonesia are juveniles.
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of stingray
Myliobatiformes
Myliobatiformes is one of the four orders of batoids, cartilaginous fishes related to sharks. They were formerly included in the order Rajiformes, but more recent phylogenetic studies have shown that the myliobatiforms are a monophyletic group, and that its more derived members evolved their...
in the family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
Dasyatidae, found in the Indian
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
and Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
s from South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. It is found close to shore at depths shallower than 70 m (229.7 ft), over soft substrates
Substrate (marine biology)
Stream substrate is the material that rests at the bottom of a stream. There are several classification guides. One is:*Mud – silt and clay.*Sand – Particles between 0.06 and 2 mm in diameter.*Granule – Between 2 and 4 mm in diameter....
. Attaining a width of 1.8 m (5.9 ft), this species has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc with a pointed snout and an extremely long, whip-like tail without fin folds. Adult rays have a leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
-like dorsal pattern of dark brown rings on a yellowish brown background, as well as a row of enlarged, heart-shaped dermal denticles along the midline of the disc. Newborns and small juveniles have large, solid dark spots and few denticles. The leopard whipray is caught by fisheries in many parts of its range, primarily for meat.
Taxonomy
Historically, the leopard stingray has been conflated with the reticulate whipray (H. uarnak) or the honeycomb whiprayHoneycomb whipray
The honeycomb whipray is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, found widely in the shallow coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific from India to the Malay Archipelago. This large species grows to across and has a diamond-shaped disc with rounded corners and a projecting, pointed snout. Its...
(H. undulata or its synonym, H. fava) in literature; all three are closely similar in size, shape, and coloration. It was described as a distinct species by Peter Last and Mabel Manjaji-Matsumoto in a 2008 Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation is the national government body for scientific research in Australia...
CSIRO publication, and given the specific epithet leoparda in reference to its coloration. The type specimen is a female 1.1 m (3.6 ft) across, collected from the Gulf of Carpentaria
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
northwest of Weipa, Queensland
Weipa, Queensland
Weipa is the largest town on the Gulf of Carpentaria coast of the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Weipa had a population of 2,830; the largest community on Cape York Peninsula. It exists because of the enormous bauxite deposits along the coast...
. Another common name
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
for this species is the undulate whipray. It belongs to a larger 'uarnak' species complex
Species complex
A species complex is a group of closely related species, where the exact demarcation between species is often unclear or cryptic owing to their recent and usually still incomplete reproductive isolation. Ring species, superspecies and cryptic species complex are example of species complex...
that also contains H. astra, H. fai, H. gerrardi, H. jenkinsii, H. toshi, H. uarnak, and H. undulata.
Distribution and habitat
Apparently widespread in the tropical Indo-PacificIndo-Pacific
The Indo-Pacific is a biogeographic region of the Earth's seas, comprising the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas connecting the two in the general area of Indonesia...
region, the leopard whipray has been reported from off KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, eastern India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, throughout Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, South-East Asia, South East Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic...
including the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, southern Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, and northern Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
from Coral Bay
Coral Bay, Western Australia
Coral Bay is a small town on the coast of Western Australia, 1,200 km north of Perth. It exists primarily for tourism, with a side industry of fishing...
to the Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
. Bottom-dwelling in nature, the leopard whipray is found close inshore over soft-bottomed habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
s. It is known to occur to a depth of 70 m (229.7 ft).
Description
A large species reaching 1.4 m (4.6 ft) across and 4.1 m (13.5 ft) long, the leopard whipray has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc wider than long and rather thick at the center, with narrowly rounded to angular outer corners. The leading margins are sinuous and converge to a broadly triangular snout; the tip of the snout protrudes as a distinct, pointed lobe. In juveniles the disc is nearly equal in length and width. The eyes are small and immediately followed by much larger, roughly rectangular spiracleSpiracle
Spiracles are openings on the surface of some animals that usually lead to respiratory systems.-Vertebrates:The spiracle is a small hole behind each eye that opens to the mouth in some fishes. In the primitive jawless fish the first gill opening immediately behind the mouth is essentially similar...
s. Between the long, narrow nostrils is a wide, skirt-shaped flap of skin with a finely fringed posterior margin. The mouth is strongly bow-shaped, with shallow furrows at the corners. There are four short papillae (nipple-like structures) on the floor of the mouth, as a central pair and a much smaller outer pair; papillae are also found on the lower jaw. The teeth are small, conical, and blunt, numbering around 59 rows in the upper jaw. The five pairs of gill slit
Gill slit
Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer cover. Such gills are characteristic of Cartilaginous fish such as sharks, rays, sawfish, and guitarfish. Most of these have five pairs, but a few species have 6 or 7 pairs...
s are S-shaped. The pelvic fins are fairly slender; males have stout claspers.
The very thin, whip-like tail measures 2.5–3.8 times as long as the disc, and bears usually one serrated stinging spine on top about half a disc width behind the tail base; there are no fin folds. Adults have a broad band of tiny, closely spaced granules extending from before the eyes, onto to the tail. At the center of the disc, there is a midline row of up to 15 enlarged, heart-shaped denticles, with the two largest ones located one after the other between the "shoulders". There are no enlarged denticles on the base of the tail. When born, this species is grayish to brownish above with large black spots, a row of dark spots on either side of the tail until the sting, and beyond it alternating dark and light rings. The spots hollow out at around a disc width of 55 cm (21.7 in), such as that large juveniles and adults are mostly covered by a leopard-like pattern of large, dark brown rings on a yellowish-brown background. The dark and light rings on the tail fade ventrally to become saddles. The underside is uniformly white. This ray has two alternate color morph
Polymorphism (biology)
Polymorphism in biology occurs when two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species — in other words, the occurrence of more than one form or morph...
s that have yet to be described.
Biology and ecology
The natural history of the leopard whipray is poorly understood, partly due to confusion with other species. It presumably preys on crustaceanCrustacean
Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...
s and small fishes. Like other stingrays, it is aplacental viviparous, with the developing embryo
Embryo
An embryo is a multicellular diploid eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, hatching, or germination...
s sustained by histotroph ("uterine milk") produced by the mother. The newborns measure roughly 20 cm (7.9 in) across and 92 cm (36.2 in) long, smaller than in H. uarnak and H. undulata, and have few or no denticles. Also in contrast to those two species, young leopard whiprays 50 cm (19.7 in) across have still not developed the dorsal denticle band. Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity is the age or stage when an organism can reproduce. It is sometimes considered synonymous with adulthood, though the two are distinct...
is attained at 70–80 cm (27.6–31.5 in) across for males. Known parasites of this species include the tapeworms Parachristianella indonesiensis and P. baverstocki.
Human interactions
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has not assessed the status of the leopard whipray. In parts of IndonesiaIndonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
and probably elsewhere, it is heavily fished for its meat and possibly also skin and cartilage
Cartilage
Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...
, using bottom trawls, tangle net
Tangle net
Similar to a gillnet, the tangle net, or tooth net, is a type of nylon fishing net. Left in the water for no more than two days, and allowing bycatch to be released alive, this net is considered to be less harmful that other nets. The tangle net is used in the Philippines by commercial fishermen,...
s, and longlines. Most individuals caught in eastern Indonesia are juveniles.