Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Smalleye whip ray

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Kingdom
  
Animalia

Class
  
Chondrichthyes

Order
  
Myliobatiformes

Scientific name
  
Himantura microphthalma

Phylum
  
Chordata

Subclass
  
Elasmobranchii

Family
  
Dasyatidae

Rank
  
Species

Similar
  
Blackedge whipray, Himantura krempfi, Ganges stingray, Dasyatis ushiei, Izu stingray

The smalleye whip ray (Himantura microphthalma) is an obscure species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae. It is known only from a single specimen collected off Taiwan and assigned to the genus Dasyatis by J.T.F. Chen in 1948. In 1982, Leonard Compagno and Tyson Roberts moved it to the genus Himantura based on its apparent lack of a tail fold. In 2006, B. Mabel Manjaji-Matsumoto and Peter Last determined that the type specimen had been lost since Chen's description and that no further specimens have emerged since. Therefore, they considered this species to be a nomen dubium, perhaps conspecific with Dasyatis acutirostra.

References

Smalleye whip ray Wikipedia