Neotrygon indica sp. nov., the Indian Ocean blue-spotted maskray (Myliobatoidei, Dasyatidae)

Abstract

The blue-spotted maskray, previously N. kuhlii, consists of up to eleven lineages representing separate species. Nine of these species (N. australiae, N. bobwardi, N. caeruleopunctata, N. malaccensis, N. moluccensis, N. orientale, N. vali, N. varidens, N. westpapuensis) have already been formally described and two (Indian Ocean maskray and Ryukyu maskray) remain undescribed. Here, the Indian Ocean maskray is described as a new species, Neotrygon indica sp. nov. Specimens of the new species were generally characterized on their dorsal side by a moderately large number of small ocellated blue spots, a low number of medium-sized ocellated blue spots, the absence of large ocellated blue spots, a high number of dark speckles, a few dark spots, and a conspicuous occipital mark. The new species formed a distinct haplogroup in the tree built from concatenated nucleotide sequences at the CO1 and cytochrome b loci. A diagnosis based on colour patterns and nucleotide sequences at the CO1 and cytochrome b loci is proposed. The distribution of N. indica sp. nov. includes the Indian coast of the Bay of Bengal, the Indian coast of the Laccadives Sea, and Tanzania. Considerable sampling effort remains necessary for an in-depth investigation of the phylogeographic structure of the Indian Ocean maskray.

New insights into the identities of the elasmobranch fauna of Sri Lanka

“…However, they differed from that specimen by 20-25 bp, suggesting that the Sri Lankan specimens may represent a distinct species. Although NADH2 data are not available for the recently described Neotrygon indica, the specimens from Sri Lanka are morphologically consistent with the description of that species of Pavan-Kumar et al (2018). Further supporting these findings is the fact that two of our specimens were landed at fish markets or landing sites adjacent to the Gulf of Mannar-the body of water in which the type locality of N. indica is also found (i.e., the Inico Nagar, Tuticorin fish landing centre [9.…”

“…A voucher specimen of this species was deposited in the BRT Ichthyology Collection (SL-67; BRT-I 0016). This is likely the species referred to as Dasyatis kuhlii (Müller & Henle) in Sri Lanka (De Bruin et al 1995;Morón et al 1998;De Silva 2006)-a taxon now assigned to the genus Neotrygon (see Last & White 2008) and known to belong to a species complex that includes several new regionally distributed species Last et al 2016c;Borsa 2017b;Pavan-Kumar et al 2018). This is the first formal report of N. indica from Sri Lanka.…”

“…Further supporting these findings is the fact that two of our specimens were landed at fish markets or landing sites adjacent to the Gulf of Mannar-the body of water in which the type locality of N. indica is also found (i.e., the Inico Nagar, Tuticorin fish landing centre [9. 12°N, 79.46°E] in India; Pavan-Kumar et al 2018). A voucher specimen of this species was deposited in the BRT Ichthyology Collection (SL-67; BRT-I 0016).…”

Neotype designation and re-description of Forsskål’s reticulate whipray Himantura uarnak

“…The taxonomic value of mitochondrial DNA sequences has been demonstrated in morphologically intractable species complexes in Elasmobranchs such as those of the long-tailed butterfly ray Gymnura poecilura (Naylor et al 2012 ;Muktha et al 2018), the whitespotted whipray Maculabatis gerrardi (Ward et al 2008;Naylor et al 2012) or the blue-spotted maskray Neotrygon kuhlii (Naylor et al 2012;Puckridge et al 2013;Borsa et al 2018;Pavan-Kumar et al 2018). The reticulate whipray Himantura spp.…”

Delimiting cryptic species in a shark with a low dispersal capability

“…In some taxa, genetic differences may not be reciprocal with either morphology (phenotypic plasticity), biology (reproductive traits), or ecological characteristics (habitat preferences) (45). In elasmobranchs, genetics has been used to can delineate cryptic species in a species complexes in the genera Carcharhinus, Aetobatus and Neotrygon (38,40,46,47), as well as coalesce two genera into one genus due to genetic indistinctiveness, such as in Mobula (48).…”