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First record of the honeycomb stingray Himantura leoparda (Manjaji‐Matsumoto & Last, 2008) (Myliobatoidei: Dasyatidae) in the Mediterranean Sea, confirmed by DNA barcoding
Author(s) -
Yucel N.,
Sakalli A.,
Karahan A.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of applied ichthyology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.392
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1439-0426
pISSN - 0175-8659
DOI - 10.1111/jai.13283
Subject(s) - stingray , biology , dna barcoding , mediterranean climate , zoology , ecology
The honeycomb stingray Himantura uarnak (Forskal, 1775) belongs to the family Dasyatidae, and is widely distributed throughout the Indian and Pacific oceans. It is the only species of the Himantura genus also found in the Mediterranean Sea, where it was first recorded by BenTuvia (1966) in the eastern Mediterranean along the Israeli and Turkish coasts (Mersin). Himantura uarnak has been recorded along other Mediterranean coasts by Mouneimne (1977, in Lebanon), El Sayed (1994, in Egypt), Basusta, Erdem, and Kumlu (1998, in Turkey) and by Ali, Saad, Ben Amor, and Capapé (2010), Ali, Saad, Reynaud, and Capapé (2013), in Syria). However, Himantura leoparda is a recently recorded viviparous species of whipray described by ManjajiMatsumoto and Last (2008) as closely related to H. uarnak, with both species having a similar shape and dorsal disc pattern. The taxonomic identification of these two relatively close species is usually achieved by using the DNA barcoding technique (Arlyza et al., 2013). In this paper we identify for the first time a Himantura species, namely H. leopard, in the Mediterranean by using both morphological and molecular techniques as well as providing the first DNA barcode record of H. leoparda in the Mediterranean Sea.