"Dasyatis tortonesei", una especie críptica de raya látigo en las Islas Baleares

Morphological and molecular analyses have suggested that the common stingray (Dasyatis pastinaca) population in the Balearic Archipelago could be also composed by a cryptic species, Dasyatis tortonesei. The objective of this work was to confirm its presence by means of molecular and morphological analyses of stingray (Dasyatis sp.) specimens. In order to do so, 86 specimens were collected from Menorca and Mallorca: the barcoding gene was sequenced and 34 specimens were morphologically described. Molecular and morphological analyses confirmed the presence of two different species of stingrays.