Rhinobatos annandalei Norman, 1926

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 : 220

Rhinobatos annandalei Norman

( Figs. 3C , 12C, D )

A muscle sample was taken from a frozen specimen of Rhinobatos Linck (SL-115) collected in 2015 from the Peliyagoda fish market in Colombo in the Western Province. This specimen has now been formally deposited in the BRT Ichthyology Collection (BRT-I 0003). Morphologically, this appears to be a specimen of Rhinobatos annandalei . It bears a symmetrical pattern of small, white spots on its dorsal surface and it exhibits broad grayish brown patches on the ventral surface of the disc and possibly also the tail, although the color of the latter is obscured as a result of freezing. NADH2 data for a reference specimen of confirmed identity was unavailable. However, this specimen differed from the five of its congeners included in the Neighbor-Joining analysis by 83–137 bp.

This name is in current use for this species in Sri Lanka (see De Silva 1978, 2006; De Bruin et al. 1995; Morón et al. 1998).

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 12. Acroteriobatus variegatus (A, B) and Rhinobatos annandalei (C, D) (Rhinobatidae). A. Dorsal surface of immature male (SL-99; BRT-I 0027). B. Ventral snout and oronasal region of immature male (SL-99; BRT-I 0027). C. Dorsal surface of female (SL-115; BRT-I 0003). D. Ventral snout and oronasal region of female (SL-115; BRT-I 0003). E. Dorsal surface of immature male (SL-28). F. Oronasal region of immature male (SL-28).