Cruriraja ‘parcomaculata’(Roughnose legskate)

(von Bonde & Swart, 1924) = C. sp.nov

Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa (animals) > Bilateria > Deuterostomia > Chordata > Craniata > Vertebrata (vertebrates)  > Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates) > Chondrichthyes > Elasmobranchii > Batoidei > Rajoidei > Rajidae > Anacanthobatidae

Cruriraja ‘parcomaculata’(Roughnose legskate) [Illustration by Ann Hecht ©]

Identification

A small rough legskate with a pointed snout and large conspicuous white thorns on snout, around eyes, on shoulders, and in several rows from nape to 1st dorsal fin. Colour sandy brown above, usually with scattered dark brown and whitish spots, very conspicuous in young but more obscure in adults; tail with conspicuous dark brown banding in juveniles, underside white.

Size

To 55 cm TL and 35 cm DW.

Range

Most of the area, from Lu"deritz, Namibia, to Durban. Endemic.

Habitat

Uppermost slope, on the bottom at 195 to 620 m.

Biology

Moderately common. Feeds largely on small crustaceans, including crabs, shrimp, hermit crabs, mysids, amphipods, and isopods, also dragonets, squid, polychaete worms, and flatworms.

Human Impact

Regularly caught by hake bottom trawlers.

Text by Leonard J.V. Compagno, David A. Ebert and Malcolm J. Smale