Pateobatis jenkinsii (Annandale)

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 : 215

Pateobatis jenkinsii (Annandale)

( Figs. 2G , 10A, B )

Five specimens of a species of Pateobatis Last, Naylor & Manjaji-Matsumoto were collected from fish markets in Puttalam (SL-17) in the North Western Province, and Munai (SL-43) at Point Pedro in the Northern Province, and a landing site in Mutur (SL-97, SL-98, and SL-101) in the Eastern Province. However, our molecular analysis, which included representation of four of the five described members of the genus as well as the undescribed taxon referred to as Pateobatis cf. uarnacoides by Naylor et al. (2012a), raised issues regarding the identity of Pateobatis jenkinsii across its current distribution as defined by Last et al. (2016b). The five specimens from Sri Lanka differed from one another by 0–1 bp. They grouped most closely with our reference specimen of P. jenkinsii (VN- 103; JQ518810 ) from Vietnam but differed from that specimen by 18–19 bp. An immature specimen from Mutur has been deposited in the BRT Ichthyology Collection (SL-101; BRT-I 0028). Given the type locality of P. jenkinsii is the Ganjam coast of Orissa State, India ( Eschmeyer et al. 2018), we consider the form in Sri Lanka to be P. jenkinsii . Thus, it seems appropriate to refer to the specimen from Vietnam as P. cf. jenkinsii until such time as the conspecificity of specimens from across the current distribution of P. jenkinsii (see Last et al. 2016b) can be investigated in more detail.

Morón et al. (1998; pg. 152) reported three forms of this taxon as Himantura jenkinsii (Annandale) , H. jenkinsii A?, and H. jenkinsii B?, for specimens of different sizes, all from Beruwela in the Western Province. Clearly, the identity of specimens referred to as this, or related, species in Sri Lanka requires further study.

Figures

FIGURE 2. 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. Aetobatus (Aetobatidae). B. Brevitrygon (Dasyatidae). C. Himantura (Dasyatidae). D. Maculabatis (Dasyatidae). E. Neotrygon (Dasyatidae). F. Pastinachus (Dasyatidae). G. Pateobatis (Dasyatidae). H. Urogymnus (Dasyatidae).

FIGURE 10. Pateobatis jenkinsii (A–C) and Urogymnus granulatus (D–H) (Dasyatidae). A. Dorsal surface of mature female (SL-98). B. Wedge-shaped thorns and denticles on base of tail of mature female (SL-43). C. Dorsal surface of immature male (SL-101; BRT-I 0028). D. Dorsal surface of portion of disc of large specimen (partial; SL-13). E. Thorns and denticles on base of tail of mature specimen (SL-13). F. Ventral surface of portion of disc of large specimen (partial; SL-13). G. Dorsal surface of immature female (SL-116; BRT-I 0030). H. Scapular denticles of immature female (SL-116; BRT-I 0030).