Genus: Bathytoshia, Roughtail Stingray, Roughtail Stingrays

BATHYTOSHIA

ROUGHTAIL STINGRAYS

Large rays; disc flattened, rhomboidal, width < / = 1.3X length; pectorals continuous with head; disc outer corners angular to rounded; snout moderately short; eyes and spiracles on top of head, mouth and gill openings underneath; floor of mouth with 3-7 fleshy papillae; jaws with small blunt or pointed teeth in many series, forming bands; nostrils with a large fringed curtain between them and the mouth; no dorsal fins or tail fin; disc with or without thorns along midline; tail broad, depressed, firm, with large tubercles and small thorns, with one or more large, serrate, venomous spines on its upper surface; fold of skin along underside of tail narrow, length variable; pelvic fins relatively large, projecting slightly to well behind disc.

A cosmopolitan genus with 3 species; one in the Greater Caribbean