Author: (Forsskål, 1775)
Himantura uarnak (Forsskål, 1775)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Himantura uarnak (Forsskål, 1775) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout obtusely angled, moderately produced; disc almost rhomboid, front margins slightly concave, hind margins convex; tail long, about 3 times length of disc, without membranous folds or ridges on top or below. Floor of mouth with 4 fleshy papillae. Upper surfaces with a median series of flattened tubercles on central part of disc and widespaced thornlets along midline from between eyes or spiracles back to near base of tail. Colour: upper surfaces brown to black, with cream to yellow spots, bars or reticulations, making a bright pattern; underside creamwhite. Size: to 125 cm disc width.
Habitat, etc: See family.
Distribution: eastern part of Mediterranean (coasts of Israel, probably also off Egypt and Lebanon); a recent immigrant from Red Sea. Elsewhere, Red Sea and tropical parts of Indo-Pacific.
Complementary iconography. Blegvad and Løppenthin, 1944: pl. II (fig. 1).
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Blegvad and Løppenthin, 1944: 49 (embryos).