Styracura schmardae
| Chupare stingray | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Chondrichthyes |
| Order: | Myliobatiformes |
| Family: | Potamotrygonidae |
| Genus: | Styracura |
| Species: | S. schmardae |
| Binomial name | |
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Styracura schmardae (Werner, 1904) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Himantura schmardae (Werner, 1904) |
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Himantura schmardae (Werner, 1904)
Trygon schmardae Werner, 1904
The chupare stingray or Caribbean whiptail stingray, Styracura schmardae, is a species of stingray in the family Potamotrygonidae, found in the western Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf of Campeche to Brazil, including the Antilles. The presence of this species in the Gulf of Mexico has not been confirmed. It also occurs in the Bahamas. It usually inhabits sandy substrates, sometimes near coral reefs, and is an infrequent visitor to the Amazon River estuary. Leonard Compagno doubted the taxonomic validity of this species in his 1999 Checklist of Living Elasmobranchs.
This is a large species with a maximum reported disk width of two meters (6.6 ft). It has an oval pectoral fin disk with a long, broad-angled snout; the front margin of the disk is almost straight. The mouth is arched with indentations at the symphysis and five papillae on the floor. The teeth have elliptical bases and flattened cusps with a scallop-edged central depression. The upper jaw contains 28-36 rows of teeth. The tail is relatively short and slender, without fin folds but having subtle ventral and lateral ridges towards the base. There is a single saw-toothed spine located on the latter half of the tail. The upper surface of the body and tail are covered with small tubercles; there are large tubercles with four radiating ridges each on the shoulder region. The coloration is dark brown to olive above and yellowish white below, darkening to blackish towards the tip of the tail.
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