Butterfly ray

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The butterfly rays are a family, Gymnuridae, of rays. They are characterized by an extremely broad disc and a very short tail.

Classification

McEachran et al. place the butterfly rays in the subfamily Gymnurinae of the family Dasyatidae, but this article follows FishBase and ITIS in treating them as a family.["Gymnuridae"]. FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.[Gymnuridae (TSN 564010)]. Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Accessed on 27 March 2006.

There are fourteen species in two genera:

Genus Aetoplatea
* Tentacled butterfly ray, Aetoplatea tentaculata Müller & Henle, 1841.
* Zonetail butterfly ray, Aetoplatea zonura Bleeker, 1852.
Genus Gymnura
* Gymnura afuerae (Hildebrand, 1946).
* Spiny butterfly ray, Gymnura altavela (Linnaeus, 1758).
* Australian butterfly ray, Gymnura australis (Ramsay & Ogilby, 1886).
* Twin-spot butterfly ray, Gymnura bimaculata (Norman, 1925).
* Longsnout butterfly ray, Gymnura crebripunctata (Peters, 1869).
* Gymnura crooki Fowler, 1934.
* Madeira butterfly ray, Gymnura hirundo (Lowe, 1843).
* Japanese butterfly ray, Gymnura japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850).
* California butterfly ray, Gymnura marmorata (Cooper, 1864).
* Smooth butterfly ray, Gymnura micrura (Bloch & Schneider, 1801).
* Backwater butterfly ray, Gymnura natalensis (Gilchrist & Thompson, 1911).
* Longtail butterfly ray, Gymnura poecilura (Shaw, 1804).

References

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