reticulate whipray, honeycomb stingray (Himantura uarnak) Himantura uarnak syn. Trygon uarnak
Date 1878
Source Francis Day (1878) The Fishes of India. Volume 2.
Author Achilles
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trygon_uarnak_Achilles_194.jpg
The reticulate whipray or honeycomb stingray (Himantura uarnak) is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae. It inhabits coastal waters in the western Indian Ocean including the Red Sea, Natal and the Arabian Sea; also a Lessepsian transmigrant in the eastern Mediterranean. A large species reaching 2 m in width, the reticulate whipray has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc and an extremely long tail without fin folds. Both its common and scientific names refer to its ornate dorsal color pattern of many small, close-set dark spots or reticulations on a lighter background. However, the reticulate whipray is only one of several large spotted stingrays in the Indo-Pacific which, coupled with the variability of its coloration with age and locality, has resulted in a great deal of taxonomic confusion. (Wikipedia)
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Dasyatidae
Genus: Himantura
Species: Himantura uarnak (Forsskål, 1775) or (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)
Synonyms
- Raia scherit Bonnaterre, 1788
- Raja uarnak Gmelin, 1789
- Raja sephen var. uarnak Forsskål, 1775
- Raja uarnata Walbaum, 1792
- Trygon maculata Kuhl & van Hasselt in Bleeker, 1852
- Trygon punctata Günther, 1870