Hypanus americanus ( Hildebrand & Schroeder, 1928 )

Jones, Christian M., Driggers Iii, William B., Hannan, Kristin M., Hoffmayer, Eric R., Jones, Lisa M. & Raredon, Sandra J., 2020, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyan fishes inhabiting the northern Gulf of Mexico Part 1: Batoidea, Zootaxa 4803 (2), pp. 281-315 : 298

Hypanus americanus ( Hildebrand & Schroeder, 1928) —southern stingray

Synonyms: Dasyatis americana Hildebrand & Schroeder, 1928

Distribution. This species is distributed throughout the northern GOM from southern Florida to the Texas/ Mexico border. It inhabits estuarine and coastal waters and is commonly reported to 55 m in depth, although NMFS SEFSC trawl surveys have documented them as deep as 82 m.

First Record in GOM. Because of the similarity between Hypanus americanus and Bathytoshia centroura , it is difficult to separate reports of early collections of the two species, especially considering the specific epithet hastata , or some variation thereof, was variably used for both species (see Remarks below). However, it is probable the first documentation of Hypanus americanus from the northern GOM in the literature (as Dasyatis hastata ) was by Gudger (1913) who reports making observations of this species while working in the Dry Tortugas.

Remarks. The genus Hypanus Rafinesque, 1818 was previously considered a junior synonym of Dasyatis until resurrected by Last et al. (2016) based predominantly on molecular evidence. DeKay (1842) described a species of dasyatid ray, Pastinaca hastata , similar in many ways to both what is currently referred to as Hypanus americanus and Bathytoshia centroura . His description does not include details necessary for determining which species is actually described (e.g. presence or absence of dorsal fin fold), however, Hildebrand and Schroeder (1928) considered Pastinaca hastata synonymous with what is now Bathytoshia centroura . They indicated the species described by Garman (1882) as Dasybatis hastata was in fact what is currently known as Hypanus americanus , but as the specific epithet hastata is synonymous with Bathytoshia centroura , that name was not available. If closer inspection reveals DeKay’s (1842) description was of what is currently called Hypanus americanus and not of Bathytoshia centroura , the specific epithet hastata would take priority.

Conservation Status. Data Deficient