Potamotrygonidae Garman 1877

Angulo, Arturo, Betts, Joel T., González-Alemán, Néstor J., Castañeda, Edgar, Berghe, Eric Van Den, Elías, Diego J., Mcmahan, Caleb D. & Matamoros, Wilfredo A., 2023, Continental fishes of Nicaragua: diversity, distribution and conservation status; with an annotated and illustrated checklist of species and an identification guide to families, Zootaxa 5376 (1), pp. 1-89 : 12

Family Potamotrygonidae Garman 1877 ( Fig. 2D ). River Stingrays, Whiptail Stingrays; Rayas de Espina, Rayas Látigo

Description: Body strongly depressed; anterior edge of the greatly enlarged pectoral fins attached to the sides of the head via the antorbital cartilage; up to about 100 cm in length; disc a rounded rhomboid, wider than long, evenly rounded at the front; eyes and spiracles on dorsal surface; gill openings ventral; pelvic fins modified as copulatory organs in males; anal fin absent; tail long (distance from cloaca to tip much longer than disc width), very slender to whip-like, without dorsal fin but with one or more long, poisonous spines; caudal fin absent (Nelson et al. 2016).

Distribution: Marine (continental and insular shelves and uppermost slopes), brackish and freshwater (mostly); tropical to warm temperate, North, Central and South America and Atlantic and Pacific oceans (Nelson et al. 2016). One genus and one species in Nicaraguan freshwaters.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Families of continental fishes of Nicaragua, part 1; Carcharhinidae (A), Pristidae (B), Dasyatidae (C), Potamotrygonidae (D), Lepisosteidae (E), Elopidae (F), Megalopidae (G), Ophichthidae (H), Anguillidae (I), Engraulidae (J), Pristigasteridae (K), Dorosomatidae (L) and Cyprinidae (M). Illustrations adapted (with permission) from Nelson et al. (2016) and Angulo et al. (2021).