The Kapala stingaree (''Urolophus kapalensis'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

stingray Stingrays are a group of sea rays, which are cartilaginous fish related to sharks. They are classified in the suborder Myliobatoidei of the order Myliobatiformes and consist of eight families: Hexatrygonidae (sixgill stingray), Plesiobatidae ( ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Urolophidae The Urolophidae are a family of rays in the order Myliobatiformes, commonly known as stingarees or round stingrays. This family formerly included the genera '' Urobatis'' and ''Urotrygon'' of the Americas, which are presently recognized as formin ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

inshore A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. In physical oceanography, a shore is the wider fringe that is geologically modified by the action of the body of water past a ...

waters off southeastern

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

and

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. It is commonly found on and around rocky

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral or similar relatively stable material, lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic processes— deposition of sand, wave erosion planing down rock out ...

s at a depth of . Reaching in length, the Kapala stingaree has a rounded, diamond-shaped

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

disc and a slender tail, which ends in a leaf-shaped

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

and bears lateral skin folds and a small

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

in front of the stinging spine. It has a distinctive bell-shaped curtain of skin between its nostrils. This species is greenish above, with a highly variable pattern of dark markings usually found outside and between the eyes, and over the back and tail.

Crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, in particular

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

and

amphipod Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...

s, constitute the predominant prey of the Kapala stingaree; small

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

es and polychaete worms are also eaten. It is

aplacental viviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...

, with females normally gestating only one pup at a time, and provisioning it with histotroph ("uterine milk"). The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

(IUCN) has assessed this species as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as that may be vulnerable to endangerment in the near future, but it does not currently qualify fo ...

; it is regularly taken incidentally by commercial fisheries, and is unlikely to be resilient against fishing pressure due to its low fecundity and propensity for aborting its young when captured.

Taxonomy

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) researchers Gordon Yearsley and Peter Last described the Kapala stingaree, previously termed ''Urolophus'' "sp. A", in a 2006 issue of the

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

''Zootaxa''. They named the new species in honor of the research ship FRV ''Kapala'', which conducted a series of

fishery Fishery can mean either the enterprise of raising or harvesting fish and other aquatic life; or more commonly, the site where such enterprise takes place ( a.k.a. fishing ground). Commercial fisheries include wild fisheries and fish farms, both ...

surveys off

in 1980s and 1990s that contributed substantially to

ichthyological Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish ( Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish ( Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octob ...

knowledge. On November 14, 1984, the ''Kapala'' collected the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

of this species, an adult male long, from the

Tasman Sea The Tasman Sea (Māori: ''Te Tai-o-Rēhua'', ) is a marginal sea of the South Pacific Ocean, situated between Australia and New Zealand. It measures about across and about from north to south. The sea was named after the Dutch explorer Abe ...

off Jervis Bay. This ray may also be referred to as the banded stingaree.

Distribution and habitat

The range of the Kapala stingaree is limited to the eastern coast of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, between Cape Moreton in

to Disaster Bay in

. This

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

species has been reported between the depths of . Off Queensland, it is common in water deeper than , while off New South Wales it is rare north of the Clarence River, and common south of it in water shallower than . The Kapala stingaree prefers rocky

s and adjacent sandy flats, as well as

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

beds.Murch, A
Kapala stingaree aka banded stingaree
Elasmodiver.com. Retrieved on September 7, 2010.

Description

The

disc of the Kapala stingaree is more or less diamond-shaped with rounded outer corners and posterior margins, and is slightly wider than long. The leading margins of the disc are nearly straight and converge at an obtuse angle on the fleshy, barely protruding snout. The eyes are of modest size and followed by teardrop-shaped

spiracle Spiracle or spiraculum may refer to: * Spiracle (arthropods), opening in the exoskeletons of some arthropods * Spiracle (vertebrates), openings on the surface of some vertebrates * Spiraculum, a genus of land snails in family Cyclophoridae Cycl ...

s with rounded posterior rims. There is a subtle knob on the rear margin of each nostril. Between the nostrils is a bell-shaped curtain of skin, with the posterior margin shallowly fringed and corners elongated into lobes; only the

sparsely-spotted stingaree The sparsely spotted stingaree (''Urolophus paucimaculatus''), also known as the white-spotted stingaree or Dixon's stingaree, is a species of stingray in the family Urolophidae, common off the southern Australian coast. Preferring sandy flats an ...

(''U. paucimaculatus'') has a similarly shaped nasal curtain. The mouth is small and contains 5–7 papillae (nipple-like structure) arranged in a W-shaped pattern on the floor. The lower jaw also bears a patch of prominent papillae, arranged to form a series of transverse ridges. The teeth have rhomboid bases and are arranged in a quincunx pattern; the crowns are blunt for teeth at the sides of the jaws, becoming higher and more pointed towards the middle of the jaw. There are 25 upper and 31–32 lower tooth rows. The five pairs of

gill slit Gill slits are individual openings to gills, i.e., multiple gill arches, which lack a single outer cover. Such gills are characteristic of cartilaginous fish such as sharks and rays, as well as deep-branching vertebrates such as lampreys. In con ...

s are S-shaped. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...

s are small with rounded rear margins; males have short, stout claspers. The slender, flattened tail measures 82–90% as long as the disc, and terminates in a low, leaf-shaped

; there is a prominent skin fold running along each side. A very thin, serrated stinging spine is positioned atop the tail about halfway along its length; immediate in front is a long, low

. The skin entirely lacks

dermal denticle A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as we ...

s. The Kapala stingaree is greenish above, becoming pinkish toward the disc margins, and bears a variable pattern of dark markings that usually include a triangular blotch beneath each eye, a V-shaped bar between the eyes, a blotch at the base of the pelvic fins, and a pair of blotches in the middle of the disc that extend into stripes that run onto the tail. Not all individuals have all of these markings, and a few may be mottled or almost black on top. The underside is off-white with a wide, dusky band around the disc margin. The tail is pale with a dark midline stripe above and sometimes scattered dark blotches below; the dorsal fin is greenish and the caudal fin is light with a dark edge in adults, and entirely dark in juveniles. The largest known specimen measures long.

Biology and ecology

The Kapala stingaree feeds primarily on

(mainly palaemonids) and

s (mainly ampeliscids), which together make up some 70% of its diet by volume. Important secondary prey are penaeid prawns and small

es, while

crab Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (abdomen) ( el, βραχύς , translit=brachys = short, / = tail), usually hidden entirely under the thorax. They live in all the ...

s, polychaete worms, and

isopod Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, an ...

s are rarely consumed. Dietary composition is largely consistent across all ages, though older rays tend to consume proportionately more amphipods and fewer shrimp than younger rays. Like other stingrays, this species is

with the developing

embryo An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male spe ...

s sustained by histotroph ("uterine milk") produced by the mother. Typically a litter consists of only a single pup, born at around long. Males reach sexual maturity at around long.

Human interactions

Significant numbers of Kapala stingarees are caught incidentally in prawn

trawl Trawling is a method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch different speci ...

s utilized by the Queensland East Coast Trawl Fishery (ECTF) and the New South Wales Ocean Trawl Fishery (OTF), which may have led to a decline in this species as has been documented for other stingarees in the region. Given its small distribution, low reproductive rate, and tendency to abort its young when captured, the

(IUCN) has assessed the Kapala stingaree as

. It does not appear to have benefited from the installation of

Turtle Exclusion Device A turtle excluder device (TED) is a specialized device that allows a captured sea turtle to escape when caught in a fisherman's net. In particular, sea turtles can be caught when bottom trawling is used by the commercial shrimp fishing indus ...

s (TEDs).

References

External links

Fishes of Australia : ''Urolophus kapalensis''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2201353 Urolophus Fauna of New South Wales Marine fish of Eastern Australia Taxa named by Gordon K. Yearsley Taxa named by Peter R. Last Fish described in 2006 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot