Pastinachus ater (Macleay)

Fernando, Daniel, Bown, Rosalind M. K., Tanna, Akshay, Gobiraj, Ramajeyam, Ralicki, Hannah, Jockusch, Elizabeth L., Ebert, David A., Jensen, Kirsten & Caira, Janine N., 2019, New insights into the identities of the elasmobranch fauna of Sri Lanka, Zootaxa 4585 (2), pp. 201-238 : 215

Pastinachus ater (Macleay)

( Figs. 2F , 9 C–E)

All three specimens of this species examined were collected from fish markets in Point Pedro in the Northern Province, one from the Munai market (SL-39) and two from the Kottadi market (SL-63 and SL-64). These specimens were morphologically consistent with Pastinachus ater . This identification was supported by the tree resulting from the Neighbor-Joining analysis, which included representation of all five members of this genus. The Sri Lankan specimens formed a tight cluster with our reference specimen of P. ater (KA-35; JQ518815 ) from Indonesian Borneo. These specimens differed from one another by 0–1 bp, and from the reference specimen of P. ater by 4–5 bp. They differed from the reference specimen of P. sephen (MM-23; JQ518817 ) from the Gulf of Oman by 70–79 bp.

Specimens of this taxon in Sri Lanka have previously been referred to as Pastinachus sephen (Forsskål) (see De Bruin et al. 1995; Morón et al. 1998; De Silva 2006). The latter species is now considered to occur only from the Red Sea to Pakistan ( Last et al. 2016). This is the first formal report of P. ater from Sri Lanka.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Neighbor-Joining trees of p-distances based on 1,044 bp of aligned NADH2 sequence data for individual batoid genera or groups of genera. Taxon names are followed by country, host specimen number (in parentheses), and GenBank number. Outgroup taxa used in each analysis were omitted from the individual trees. Scale bar values indicate substitutions per site. Specimens deposited in the Blue Resources Trust Ichthyology Collection are indicted by stars (see text for details). A. Aetobatus (Aetobatidae). B. Brevitrygon (Dasyatidae). C. Himantura (Dasyatidae). D. Maculabatis (Dasyatidae). E. Neotrygon (Dasyatidae). F. Pastinachus (Dasyatidae). G. Pateobatis (Dasyatidae). H. Urogymnus (Dasyatidae).

FIGURE 9. Neotrygon indica (A–B) and Pastinachus ater (C–E) (Dasyatidae). A. Dorsal surface of mature male (SL-72). B. Dorsal surface of female (SL-24). C. Dorsal surface of mature male (SL-39). D. Scapular denticles of mature male (SL-39). E. Oronasal region of mature male (SL-39).