Bennett's stingray
| Bennett's stingray | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Subclass: | Elasmobranchii |
| Order: | Myliobatiformes |
| Family: | Dasyatidae |
| Genus: | Dasyatis |
| Species: | D. bennetti |
| Binomial name | |
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Dasyatis bennetti (J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Trygon bennettii J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841 |
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Trygon bennettii J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841
The Bennett's stingray or frilltailed stingray (Dasyatis bennetti, often misspelled benetti or bennettii) is a little-known species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, with a wide but ill-defined distribution in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. This species is characterized by a rhomboid, yellow-brown pectoral fin disc with a fairly long snout, and an extremely long tail with a correspondingly long ventral fin fold. It measures up to 50 cm (20 in) across. It feeds on fish, and is aplacental viviparous. It is likely caught by demersal fisheries, but the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) does not yet have sufficient information to assess its conservation status.
German biologists Johannes Peter Müller and Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle described the Bennett's stingray as Trygon bennettii in their 1839–1841 Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen. They referenced three specimens as the species syntypes: only the one from China remains, while another from Trinidad and a third of unknown provenance have been lost. Later authors synonymized the genus Trygon with Dasyatis.
The range of the Bennett's stingray is somewhat uncertain due to confusion with other species. It is a bottom-dweller that occurs in the coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific region, from India, through Indochina, to southern China, Japan, and perhaps the Philippines; it seems to be most common in the northwestern Pacific. This species has also been reported from Vanuatu and New Caledonia; the single historical record from Trinidad may be a misidentification. It has been known to enter fresh water, including the Perak River in peninsular Malaysia and the Indragiri River in Sumatra.
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