Oriental Bluespotted Maskray

About the Oriental Bluespotted Maskray

Neotrygon orientalis, the Oriental bluespotted maskray, is a type of whiptail stingray found mainly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan. It has also caused the description of a new diphyllidean species, the Echinobothrium ivanovae species, has been described from N. orientalis.

This species can be distinguished from its closest congener (Neotrygon kuhlii) through several characteristics, such as abruptly angular pectoral apices, dusky ventral tail fold with darker edge, small mouth, pronounced mask-like markings, and covered with moderate-sized blue spots and dark peppery spots. The maximum size for the male specimens is 38 cm disc width (DW).It is often confused with the newly described Neotrygon yakkoei and the Neotrygon khulli complex. The high morphological similarities among the species make species of the Khulli complex hard to identify. Phylogenetically, N. orientalis and N. varidens form a sister clade to the species N. indica, which may have a common ancestor in the Plio-Pleistocene.

This species distribution range encompasses the regions of Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, and Sulawesi in Indonesia; Sabah and Sarawak in... Wikipedia →