---
title: Leopard Torpedo Ray (Torpedo panthera)
scientific_name: Torpedo panthera
common_name: Leopard Torpedo Ray
taxon: Electric ray
conservation_status: EN - Endangered
published: 2024-01-11T07:45:51.919Z
updated: 2026-08-12T09:19:11.818Z
tags: Leopard Torpedo Ray, Torpedo panthera, Electric ray, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/electric-ray/leopard-torpedo-ray
---

# Leopard Torpedo Ray (*Torpedo panthera*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Electric ray (*Torpedinidae*)
- **Size:** up to 1 m
- **Weight:** 10 Kg
- **Depth:** 1-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and silty bottom near reef, usually buried
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous
- **Conservation status:** EN - Endangered

## How to recognise it

- rounded, almost circular disc with a short thick tail and two dorsal fins
- sandy body marked with dark leopard blotches, often buried to the eyes
- kidney-shaped electric organs visible as pale patches either side of the head
- length up to 1 m

A soft, almost circular ray to 1 m (3 ft), sandy with leopard blotches, lying buried in silt with only the eyes and spiracles above the surface. It has no barb and no teeth worth the name, and it is still an animal to leave alone.

Either side of the head sits a kidney-shaped block of modified muscle stacked into thousands of plates, each acting as a tiny battery wired in series. Discharged together they deliver a shock in the region of 200 volts - enough to stun a fish outright, and enough to knock a diver's arm away and, in shallow water, to make someone fall over. The ray uses it both to hunt and to defend itself, and it works through gloves and through water.

Hunting is done by ambush: the ray drops onto a fish, wraps the disc around it and fires, then swallows the stunned prey whole. Nothing about it is fast.

The shock has been known for a very long time. Roman physicians applied a live torpedo ray to the head for migraine and to the feet for gout, which makes this family the earliest documented use of electricity in medicine - about eighteen centuries before anyone knew what electricity was.

## Also known as

- **English:** Panther Torpedo, Panther electric ray, Leopard Torpedo
- **Arabic:** رعاد النمر
- **Hebrew:** חשמלן מנומר
- **French:** Torpille panthère
- **Italian:** Razza elettrica pantera, Torpedine pantera
- **German:** Bogenstirn-Torpedorochen, Bogenstirn-Zitterrochen
- **Dutch:** Luipaardsidderrog
- **Czech:** parejnok levhartí
- **Russian:** Индо-тихоокеанский электрический скат
- **FI:** pantterisähkörausku

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/electric-ray/leopard-torpedo-ray)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*