Bathytoshia brevicaudata ( Hutton, 1875 )

Ebert, David A., Wintner, Sabine P. & Kyne, Peter M., 2021, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of South Africa, Zootaxa 4947 (1), pp. 1-127 : 91

Bathytoshia brevicaudata ( Hutton, 1875)

Shorttail Stingray

Trygon brevicaudata Hutton, 1875: 317 . Holotype (unique): OM A.75.02 (stuffed). Type locality: Dunedin Harbor , New Zealand.

Local synonymy: Trygon schreineri : Gilchrist, 1913: 33, fig. (original description, holotype SAM 16053, caught off rocks at St James in False Bay, South Africa). Dasybatis schreineri : von Bonde & Swart, 1923: 16; Barnard, 1925: 76; Smith, 1949a: 70; Barnard, 1959: 27. Dasyatis brevicaudatus: Smith, 1949a: 70 , fig. 81; Smith, 1961a: 70, fig. 81; Smith, 1965: 70, fig. 81; Wallace, 1967c: 37, figs. 18–19; Compagno & Heemstra, 1984: 3; Compagno, 1999: 117; NPOA, 2013: 60. Dasyatis brevicaudata: Compagno, 1986: 136 , fig. 30.1; Compagno et al., 1989: 102, pl; da Silva et al., 2015: 246; Ebert & van Hees, 2015: 147; Weigmann, 2016: 964. Bathytoshia brevicaudata : Last et al., 2016h: 354; Last et al., 2016i: 530, fig. 25.1.

South Africa voucher material: Holotype: SAM 16053. Non-types: SAIAB 7866 [ex ORI B805 ], SAIAB 26469 , SAIAB 26470 , SAIAB 27444 .

South African distribution: Saldanha Bay, west coast (WC) to Kosi Bay, northern KZN.

Remarks: The first record of this species from South African waters was caught by an angler and described by Gilchrist (1913) as a new species ( Trygon schreineri ). However, Wallace (1967c) examined additional specimens from South Africa and compared them with New Zealand specimens and concluded that they were the same species and that Trygon schreineri (= D. brevicaudata ) should be relegated to junior synonym status.

Conservation status: LC (2016).