Author: (Bonaparte, 1832)
Dasyatis violacea (Bonaparte, 1832)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Pteroplatytrygon violacea (Bonaparte, 1832) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout rounded, not produced; disc almost triangular, fronl and hind margins convex; tail long, 2.5-3.0 times length of disc, with a short and low membranous fold below (originating at level of spine) and sometimes a ridge along top. Floor of mouth with 10 12 broad-based papillae. Colour: upper surfaces dark, ranging from dark purple to dark greenish-blue; underside the same. Size: to 80 cm disc width.
Habitat: pelagic in tropical to warm temperate waters, generally in first 100 m, but occasionally to 240 m. Food: coelenterates (including medusae), squids, decapod crustaceans and fishes. Reproduction: ovoviviparous; copulation in spring, young produced in late summer.
Distribution: south-eastern coasts of Mediterranean and off Sicily. Elsewhere, probably cosmopolitan in tropical and subtropical seas.
Complementary iconography. Bini, 1967: 179-180, fig.
Eggs, embryonic and young stages. Lo Bianco, 1909 . 689-691 | Ranzi, 1934: 398-406 | Wilson and Beckett, 1970: 703-705, fig. 5-6.