Description: A thick, dark stingray with a broadly rounded snout and an angular pectoral disc; tail less than twice body length with a long lower caudal finfold ending far in front of tail tip, but with no upper finfold; disc without thorns; usually 1 extremely long sting on tail; eyes do not protrude. Uniformly violet, purple, or dark blue-green dorsally and ventrally.
Global Distribution: Probably cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical seas. View Map
BIOLOGICAL FEATURES
Size: Maximum length 160 cm (total length); common length 110 cm (TL).
Age:
Weight length rel.:
Growth type:
von Bertallanfy growth parameters:
Reproduction: Ovoviviparous.
Maturity: range 40 - 50 cm.
Behavioural ecology:
Population structure & migrations:
ECOLOGICAL FEATURES
Depth range: FishBase: 1 - 381 m, usually 1 - 100 m.
Canary Islands (Brito et al. 2002): from the surface to 400 m depth.
Habitat: Pelagic. Found in open, tropical and warm temperate waters usually in the first 100 m. Possibly the only totally pelagic member of the family.
Feeding habits: Feeds on coelenterates (including medusae), squid, decapod crustaceans, and fish.
Trophic level: FishBase: 4.4
FISHERIES
Commercial interest: Not a commercial species. Occasionally caught accidentally in tuna longline fisheries.
Conservation status: Global: Least concern.
Europe: Least concern.
IUCN (2014). The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1. www.iucnredlist.org
Nieto A., Ralph G.M., Comeros-Raynal M.T., Kemp J., GarcÃa Criado M., Allen D.J., Dulvy N.K., Walls R.H.L., Russell B., Pollard D., GarcÃa S., Craig M., Collette B.B., Pollom R., Biscoito M., Labbish Chao N., Abella A., Afonso P., Ãlvarez H., Carpenter K.E., Clò S., Cook R., Costa M.J., Delgado J., Dureuil M., Ellis J.R., Farrell E.D., Fernandes P., Florin A-B., Fordham S., Fowle, S., Gil de Sola L., Gil Herrera J., Goodpaster A., Harvey M., Heessen H., Herler J., Jung A., Karmovskaya E., Keskin C., Knudsen S.W., Kobyliansky S., KovaÄić M., Lawson J.M., Lorance P., McCully Phillips S., Munroe T., Nedreaas K., Nielsen J., Papaconstantinou C., Polidoro B., Pollock C.M., Rijnsdorp A.D., Sayer C., Scott J., Serena F., Smith-Vaniz W.F., Soldo A., Stump E., Williams J.T. (2015). Europen Red List of Marine Fishes. IUCN and European Union, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, 90 pp.
