To see photographs of the Blue-spotted Maskray (Dasyatis kuhlii) click here.
Blue-spotted Maskray (Dasyatis kuhlii)
All images and text on this page are copyright
protected: © 2002 Kelvin Aitken.
All rights reserved. Students may use this information for personal research
only. Not for commercial use.
Maskrays are a small group of stingrays with a band of dark
colour across their eyes. The Blue-spotted Maskray (Dasyatis kuhlii) usually
has this dark eye-band sprinkled with a pattern of small dark spots. The
body is brown to bluish grey with a scattered pattern of large blue spots
edged with still darker blue. The end of the tail has a distinctive black
and white banded pattern.
The Blue-spotted Maskray is common on tropical reefs across the north
of Australia and through Asia. It can be found on shallow reef tops down
to depths of 90 m. It is quite active during the day and can be closely
approached, especially where snorkelers and divers regularly frequent
the reefs. These rays forage over the reef and sand flats for hermit crabs,
worms, shrimp and small fish. The young are born at 16 cm wide and grow
to a wingspan of 40 cm.