Taeniura lessoni Last, White & Naylor, 2016f

White, William T. & Ko’Ou, Alfred, 2018, An annotated checklist of the chondrichthyans of Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 4411 (1), pp. 1-82 : 61

Taeniura lessoni Last, White & Naylor, 2016f

Oceania Fantail Ray

Taeniura lessoni Last, White & Naylor, 2016f: 387 , Figs 8–12. Holotype: CSIRO H 7724-01. Type locality: Landoro Passage off Uepi Island, Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands.

Local synonymy: Trygon halgani Lesson, 1829: 100 (Port Praslin [=Lambom], New Ireland). Taeniura lymma — Müller & Henle, 1841: 171 (New Ireland); Günther, 1910 (in part): 495 (New Ireland); Munro, 1958: 114 (New Ireland). Taeniura lessoni —Last et al., 2016f: 392 (Kokopo, East New Britain; Kavieng, New Ireland); Last et al., 2016a: 605 (PNG); White et al., 2018: 258, figs (PNG).

PNG voucher material: (2 spec.) MNHN A 7994 (2 spec.), female 147 mm DW, male 148 mm DW, Port Praslin , New Ireland, 1822-1825 .

Remarks: First recorded from PNG by Lesson (1829) who described it as a new species, Trygon halgani , based on material from Waigeo, Indonesia and Port Praslin [=Lambom], New Ireland. Since the illustration and description in Lesson (1829) highlights the blue stripes on the tail, which T. lessoni lacks, T. halgani is considered a junior synonym of T. lymma . Underwater photographs from Kavieng district (New Ireland) and off Kokopo (East New Britain) confirm this species from PNG.