Rhinoptera javanica Müller & Henle

Fernando, Daniel, Bown, Rosalind M. K., Tanna, Akshay, Gobiraj, Ramajeyam, Ralicki, Hannah, Jockusch, Elizabeth L., Ebert, David A., Jensen, Kirsten & Caira, Janine N., 2019, New insights into the identities of the elasmobranch fauna of Sri Lanka, Zootaxa 4585 (2), pp. 201-238 : 219

Rhinoptera javanica Müller & Henle

( Figs. 3B , 11 E–H)

The single specimen (SL-20) of cownose ray examined was landed at the Erinchamman Kovilady market in Point Pedro in the Northern Province. Seven of 10 species in this genus were included in our molecular analysis, with this specimen clustering most closely with our reference specimen of Rhinoptera javanica (VN-94; JQ518924 ) from Vietnam, but differing from the latter specimen by 5 bp. The specimen from Sri Lanka was morphologically consistent with R. javanica in its possession of a long tail and seven rows of teeth in both the upper and lower jaws, the middle three rows of which are much broader than the lateral rows.

This name is in current use for this species in Sri Lanka (see De Bruin et al. 1995; Morón et al. 1998; De Silva 2006).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Neighbor-Joining trees of p-distances based on 1,044 bp of aligned NADH2 sequence data for individual batoid genera or groups of genera. Taxon names are followed by country, host specimen number (in parentheses), and GenBank number. Outgroup taxa used in each analysis were omitted from the individual trees. Scale bar values indicate substitutions per site. Specimens deposited in the Blue Resources Trust Ichthyology Collection are indicted by stars (see text for details). A. Gymnura (Gymnuridae). B. Rhinoptera (Rhinopteridae). C. Acroteriobatus and Rhinobatos (Rhinobatidae). D. Torpediniformes.

FIGURE 11. Gymnura cf. poecilura 2 (Gymnuridae) (A–D) and Rhinoptera javanica (Rhinopteridae) (E–H). A. Dorsal surface of female (SL-16). B. Tail of female (SL-16). C. Dorsal surface of immature male (SL-75; BRT-I 0017). D. Tail of immature male (SL-75; BRT-I 0017). E. Dorsal surface of immature male (SL-20). F. Dorsal fin and base of tail (lateral view; SL-20). G. Tooth plates (7) of upper jaw (SL-20). H. Tooth plates (7) of lower jaw (SL-20).