Taeniura lymma
Blue-spotted Ray [+]

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Elasmobranchii
Order: Myliobatiformes
Family: Dasyatidae
Genus: Taeniura
species: Taeniura lymma
+ITIS +WoRMS +Conservation Status

Description & Behavior

The blue-spotted ray, Taeniura lymma (Forsskål, 1775), aka blue-spotted fantail ray, blue spotted stingray, blue spotted ray, and ribbontail stingray, is a colorful stingray with large bright blue spots on an oval, elongated disc and blue side-stripes along the tail. The snout is rounded and angular and the disc has broadly rounded outer corners. They have a short tapering tail that is less than twice the body length when intact, with a broad lower caudal finfold that extends to the tail tip. The disc has no large thorns but does have small, flat denticles along the midback in adults. There is usually 1 medium-sized stinging spine on the tail found further from the base than most stingrays. They are gray-brown to yellow, or olive-green to reddish brown in color on the dorsal side, white on the ventral side. They reach a maximum length about 70 cm.

World Range & Habitat

The blue-spotted ray is found around coral reefs in a depth range up to to 20 m. They are only rarely found buried under the sand. In the Indo-West Pacific they are found in the Red Sea and East Africa to the Solomon Islands, north to southern Japan, and southern to northern Australia.

» GBIF occurrence data in Google Earth [Requirements | Tips] | Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) [World Map] | [about]

Feeding Behavior (Ecology)

The blue-spotted ray migrates in groups into shallow sandy areas during the rising tide to feed on mollusks, worms, shrimps, and crabs; they disperse at low tide to seek shelter in caves and under ledges.

Life History

Ovoviviparous. Distinct pairing with embrace. Blue-spotted rays bear up to 7 young at one time.

Ovoviviparous: eggs are retained within the body of the female in a brood chamber where the embryo develops, receiving nourishment from a yolk sac. This is the method of reproduction for the "live-bearing" fishes where pups hatch from egg capsules inside the mother's uterus and are born soon afterward. Also known as aplacental viviparous.

Comments

The blue-spotted ray is venomous. Small specimens are popular among marine aquarists, though they do not survive well in aquariums. Although they are very wide-ranging and common, this species is subject to population decreases because of capture for the marine aquarium fish trade and by widespread destruction of reef habitats.

References & Further Research

BioOne ~ CITES ~ Discover Life ~ GBIF ~ Google Scholar ~ ITIS ~ IUCN RedList ~ MarineBio Network ~ NCBI ~ SCIRIS ~ SIRIS ~ Tree of Life Web Project ~ Wikipedia

Blue-spotted Fantail Ray, Taeniura lymma - Australian Museum online

Search the Web for Blue-spotted Ray » ARKive ~ Ask.com ~ Ask Jeeves ~ bing ~ deviantART ~ dmoz ~ Dogpile ~ Google Images ~ MySpace Images ~ OceanFootage ~ Picsearch ~ StumbleUpon ~ Yahoo! Images ~ YouTube

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Citation: Taeniura lymma, Blue-spotted Ray - MarineBio.org. Retrieved , from .

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Taeniura lymma Blue-spotted Ray [+]