Common stingray

Lore & Background

Well-documented since classical antiquity, the common stingray was known as trygon to the ancient Greeks and as pastinaca to the ancient Romans. An old common name used in Great Britain since at least the 18th century is 'fire-flare' or 'fiery-flare', which may refer to the reddish color of its meat. The first formal scientific description was authored by Carl Linnaeus in the 1758 tenth edition of Systema Naturae, as Raja pastinaca. It has since been placed in the genus Dasyatis. There are at least 25 earlier references to this ray in literature under various non-binomial names. Many of these early accounts, including Linnaeus', also incorporated information from other species, so the designation of a lectotype is warranted but has yet to be enacted.

The blue stingray (Dasyatis chrysonota) of southern Africa has long been regarded as a variant of the common stingray, but the common stingray lacks the blue markings and differs in morphological and meristic characters, leading to its recognition as a separate species by Paul Cowley and Leonard Compagno in 1993. The distinction between this species and Tortonese's stingray (D. tortonesei) of the Mediterranean is poorly understood and may not be valid. In 2001, Lisa Rosenberger published a phylogenetic analysis placing the common stingray as the most basal member of the genus Dasyatis, other than the bluespotted stingray and pelagic stingray, though those have since been placed in other genera.

Reader's Guide

The common stingray is notable for its long history in human culture, being feared and mythologized since classical antiquity. Ancient Greeks and Romans greatly feared its venom, with authors such as Aelian stating that stingray wounds were incurable. Pliny the Elder asserted that its spine could kill trees, pierce armor, and corrode iron. Greek poet Oppian claimed that the touch of stingray venom could dissolve stone. In Greek mythology, Hercules was said to have lost a finger to the bite of a stingray, and Circe was said to have armed her son with its spine. Despite these fears, the species is not aggressive and its wound, though painful, is rarely life-threatening. It is not sought after by commercial fisheries but is taken in large numbers as bycatch and utilized for food, fishmeal, and liver oil. Its population is apparently dwindling across its range, and the IUCN assesses it as Vulnerable. The species also plays a role in marine ecosystems as a predator of bottom-dwelling organisms, and its reproductive biology—aplacental viviparity with histotroph nourishment—is typical of stingrays.

Did You Know?

• The common stingray can inflict a painful, though rarely life-threatening, wound with its venomous tail spine.
• Females bear 4–9 young twice per year after a gestation period of four months.
• The largest recorded specimen had a fin width of 2.21 metres, found in 2016 in the İzmir Province of Turkey.
• The species has lived up to 21 years in captivity.