182 Louisiana Sportsman^ | April 2015
S
tingrays are some of the very few truly ven-
omous animals in Louisiana waters. I say
“some” rather than “one” because four spe-
cies of rays with spines on top of their tails occur
off of and in Louisiana.
The largest species
— and the one we
will look at here — is
the southern stingray,
Dasyatis americana.
The genus part of
the scientific name,
Dasyatis, is derived
from Greek words, with
“dasys” meaning rough
or dense and “(b)atus”
meaning shark.
The species part of
the name, americana,
is easy to figure out. It
is, indeed, the stingray
of the Americas, rang-
ing along much of the
coast of North, Central
and South America.
Identifying the four
species of stingrays
by shape is fairly easy.
Viewed from above,
our hero here has
an almost-perfect
diamond shape and,
more importantly,
the huge, flattened pectoral fins (what
makes a ray a ray) have tips that come
to sharp points.
The other two common stingrays of
Louisiana, the Atlantic and the blunt-
nose, have rounded “wing” tips. Thesetwo can be differentiated by the shape of their
noses. The Atlantic stingray has a sharply pointed
nose tip; the bluntnose, of course, has a blunt nose.
The final stingray that can occur in Louisiana,
although it is uncommon, is the yellow stingray. It
has a very oval, almost round body, viewed from the
top, and is the only one with a mottled yellow pat-
tern. It’s also small — 14 inches across is a large one.
The southern stingray is also the largest — a real
bruiser, growing up to 6 feet across wing tip to wing
tip. The Louisiana state record is 185.8 pounds and
was caught at Lake Pelto by Bebe McElroy in July- The IGFA world record is even larger at 246
pounds. It was caught in Galveston Bay, Texas in 1998.
The fishes of the earth are divided into three
groups: jawless fishes (lampreys and hagfish), carti-
laginous fish and boney fish.
Rays and sharks are cartilaginous fish, which
means that they have skeletons of cartilage
(although often quite calcified) rather than bone
like all other fish.
Rays include sawfish, guitar fish, electric rays,
skates, stingrays, eagle rays and mantas.
While classified as cartilaginous fishes, rays do
have some hard parts: teeth, varying amounts of
primitive scales called dermal denticles and, of
course the hard, barbed spines on their tails.
Southern stingrays vary a great deal in color, rang-
ing from green to brown to gray — even almost
black — on their upper surface. Adult males are half
as large as adult females. Females mature at 5 to 6
years of age and males at 3 or 4 years old.
Mating takes place by the male grabbing a female’s
wing in its mouth and sliding his upside-down body
beneath hers. There he inserts one of his two clasp-
ers into the female to inseminate her internally.
Claspers are simply large, penis-shaped modifica-
tions of the male’s anal fins.
In captivity, two to 10 young are born 4 ½ to 7 ½
Looking for the big sting
Southern rays are largest Louisiana stingrays
ABOVE: Stingray spines
like this are feared by
anglers, especially those
wading in the surf.creature feature
Jerald Horst
Bebe McElroy caught this
185.8-pound southern
stingray, which stands as
Louisiana’s state record.Jerald Horst is a retired
Louisiana State University
professor of fisheries. He
is an active writer, book
author and outdoorsman.