Maculabatis toshi (Whitley, 1939)

Open encyclopedia reference

The brown whipray (Maculabatis toshi) is a species of stingray in the family Dasyatidae, common in inshore, muddy habitats along the northern coast of Australia. It has often been confused in literature for the honeycomb stingray (H. uarnak) and the black-spotted whipray (H. astra), which until recently was thought to be the same species. This species has an angular, diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc and a long, very thin tail without fin folds. It is plain brown above, sometimes with white dots or flecks near the edge of the disc, and white below; the tail is dark all over, with alternating dark and light bands near the tip. The maximum recorded disc width is 74 cm (29 in). The diet of the brown whipray consists of crustaceans and small bony fishes. Reproduction is aplacental viviparous; females produce litters of 1–2 young and supply them with histotroph ("uterine milk") during gestation.

Wikipedia contributors, Brown whipray; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T23:07:10.594845+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Maculabatis toshi (Whitley, 1939)

Name authority

(Whitley, 1939)

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Elasmobranchii

Order

Myliobatiformes

Family

Dasyatidae

Genus

Maculabatis

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumChondrichthyes
7. classElasmobranchii
8. subclassNeoselachii
9. infraclassBatoidea
10. orderMyliobatiformes
11. familyDasyatidae Jordan & Gilbert, 1879
12. genusMaculabatis Last, Naylor & Manjaji-Matsumoto, 2016
13. speciesMaculabatis toshi (Whitley, 1939)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Maculabatis. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 85 records assigned to Dasyatidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1042869 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3XDNN. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.