Description

Dorsal spines (total): 0; Anal spines: 0. Huge stingray with conspicuous dark spots on a light brown disc; spots well-spaced in young but crowded to form reticulated pattern in adult; white ventrally; tail marked with bands of black and white; snout sharply pointed; disc with narrowly rounded outer corners, and tail long, slender and nearly three times body length when intact, with no caudal finfolds; disc without thorns but with band of flat denticles along midback (in adults); usually 1 medium-sized sting on tail (Ref. 5578).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Elasmobranchii

Order: Myliobatiformes

Family: Dasyatidae

Genus: Himantura

Species: Himantura uarnak (Gmelin, 1789)

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Common off sandy beaches and in shallow estuaries and lagoons; also found in sandy areas of coral reefs (Ref. 9710). Also offshore down to 50 m depth (Ref. 5578). May enter fresh water (Ref. 5578). Feeds on small fishes, bivalves, crabs, shrimps, worms (Ref. 3263) and jellyfishes (Ref. 37816). Ovoviviparous (Ref. 50449). Common catch of the demersal tangle net, bottom trawl, longline and beach seine fisheries (Ref.58048). Popular angling fish (Ref. 3263). Not esteemed as a food fish (Ref. 3263). Used in Chinese medicine (Ref. 12166). Tail is used as It is parasitised by the monogeneans Dendromonocotyle colorni and Dendromonocotyle ukuthena on the dorsal skin surface (Ref. 124058).

Habitat

brackish