Dasyatidae

Black-spotted whipray

Maculabatis astra

Black spotted disc hunts prawns and crabs on mudflats

• Black
• Tropical
• Regional distribution
• Marine fish
• Pacific Ocean
• Oceania
• Southeast Asia
• Large
• Tropical fish

The black-spotted whipray (Maculabatis astra) is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, found in the coastal waters off southern New Guinea and northern Australia. Long thought to be a variant of the related brown whipray (M. toshi), this species has an angular, diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc and a whip-like tail without fin folds. It is characterized by its dorsal color pattern, which consists of a variably extensive covering of small, close-set dark, and sometimes also white spots, on a grayish-brown background.