Taeniurops meyeni (Müller & Henle, 1841)

Bogorodsky, Sergey V., Zajonz, Uwe, Saeed, Fouad N. & Weigmann, Simon, 2021, Notes on batoid fishes of the Socotra Archipelago (north-western Indian Ocean) with four new records, Zootaxa 4951 (3), pp. 511-528 : 519-520

Taeniurops meyeni (Müller & Henle, 1841)

Black-blotched stingray, Round ribbontail ray, Blotched fantail ray

Fig. 7

Taenẚura meyenẚ Müller & Henle, 1841: 172; syntypes: MNHN 0000-2428 and ZMB 4660 ; type locality: Mauritius .

Material examined: No specimen collected, underwater photograph, Socotra Island, Ras Bidou, 14 m depth, 18 April 2019.

Distinctive characters: Taenẚurops meyenẚ is characterised by having a nearly circular disc, slightly wider than long; dorsal surface of disc and tail with small, flat, widely-spaced denticles and a median row of small, sharp tubercles extending on tail up to spine; tail depressed at base, about as long as disc; a broad membranous fold ventrally on tail extending to tip of tail (Almojil eṫ al. 2015; Last eṫ al. 2016c).

Colouraṫẚon: Dorsal surface grey, usually densely blotched and mottled with black, sometimes plain brownish or black; tail behind sting and skin fold uniformly black. Ventral surface pale, with disc margins and underside of tail usually darker (Almojil eṫ al. 2015; Last eṫ al. 2016c).

Distribution: Widely distributed from the Red Sea and the Gulf, south to South Africa and islands of the Western Indian Ocean, east to the islands of Micronesia and the Marquesas Islands (Last eṫ al. 2016c), also reported from the Eastern Pacific Ocean, particularly from off Galápagos Islands and Cocos Island, Costa Rica ( Grove & Lavenberg 1997; Cortés eṫ al. 2012; Weigmann 2016). In the Arabian region it is known from the Red Sea ( Golani & Bogorodsky 2010), Gulf of Tadjoura (Lips eṫ al. 2016), Oman (Randall 1995), the Gulf (Almojil eṫ al. 2015) and off Pakistan (Psomadakis eṫ al. 2015).

Remarks: The photographed individual matches well all characters of Taenẚurops meyenẚ provided by Almojil eṫ al. (2015) and Last eṫ al. (2016c). The species occurs on sand and coral rubble bottom, reported from depths of 0–500 m ( Weigmann 2016), and is usually active at darkness, often seen at rest on sand in caves or under ledges during the day. The present confirmed record is based on a single individual observed on a sand-rubble bottom close to a large rock with overhang in Ras Bidou, western part of the Socotra Island, at a depth of 14 m. The species is included as vulnerable in IUCN Red List Assessments and urgently requires conservation management ( Kyne & White 2015).

Figures

FIGURE 7. Taenẚurops meyenẚ, underwater photograph, Ras Bidou, Socotra Island, 14 m depth. Photo by S.V. Bogorodsky.