Butterfly ray explained

The butterfly rays are the rays forming the genus Gymnura and the family Gymnuridae. They are found in warm oceans worldwide, and occasionally in estuaries.

The body of butterfly rays is flattened and surrounded by an extremely broad disc formed by the pectoral fins, which merge in front of the head. They have a very short, thread-like, tail.^[1] They are up to in width.

McEachran et al. (1996) place the butterfly rays in the subfamily Gymnurinae of the family Dasyatidae,^[2] but this article follows FishBase and ITIS in treating them as a family.

Species

There are currently 12 species in this genus (others are considered synonyms):^{[3] [4]}

• Gymnura altavela (Linnaeus, 1758) – Spiny butterfly ray
• Gymnura australis (E. P. Ramsay & Ogilby, 1886) – Australian butterfly ray
• Gymnura crebripunctata (W. K. H. Peters, 1869) – Longsnout butterfly ray
• Gymnura japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850) – Japanese butterfly ray
• Gymnura lessae (Yokota & Carvalho, 2017) – butterfly ray
• Gymnura marmorata (J. G. Cooper, 1864) – California butterfly ray
• Gymnura micrura (Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801) – Smooth butterfly ray
• Gymnura natalensis (Gilchrist & W. W. Thompson, 1911) – Backwater butterfly ray
• Gymnura poecilura (G. Shaw, 1804) – Longtail butterfly ray
• Gymnura sereti (Yokota & Carvalho, 2017) – butterfly ray
• Gymnura tentaculata (J. P. Müller & Henle, 1841) – Tentacled butterfly ray
• Gymnura zonura (Bleeker, 1852) – Zonetail butterfly ray

Notes and References

1. Book: Paxton, J.R. . Eschmeyer, W.N. . Stevens, J. . Last, P.R. . amp . 1998 . Encyclopedia of Fishes . Academic Press . San Diego. 69. 0-12-547665-5.
2. Book: Interrelationships of the batoid fishes (Chondrichthyes: Batoidea) . McEachran JD, Dunn KA, Miyake T . Interrelationships of Fishes . 1996 . Academic Press . Stiassny ML, Parenti LR, Johnson GD.
3. Book: Last P, White W, de Carvalho M, Séret B, Stehmann M, Naylor G . The Rays of the World project - an explanation of nomenclatural decisions . 2016 . Supplementary information . . 1–10 . 978-0-643109131 . https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311043124_The_Rays_of_the_World_project_-_an_explanation_of_nomenclatural_decisions .
4. Yokota L, de Carvalho MR . 2017 . Taxonomic and morphological revision of butterfly rays of Gymnura micrura (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) species complex, with the description of two new species (Myliobatiformes: Gymnuridae) . Zootaxa . 4332 . 1 . 1–74 . 29242452 . 10.11646/zootaxa.4332.1.1. subscription .