---
title: Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray (Taeniura lymma)
scientific_name: Taeniura lymma
common_name: Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray
taxon: Whiptail stingray
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2023-12-29T21:33:26.650Z
updated: 2026-08-12T09:05:17.160Z
tags: Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray, Taeniura lymma, Whiptail stingray, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/whiptail-stingray/bluespotted-ribbontail-ray
---

# Bluespotted Ribbontail Ray (*Taeniura lymma*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Whiptail stingray (*Dasyatidae*)
- **Size:** up to 35 cm across
- **Weight:** 5 Kg
- **Depth:** 0-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble around reef, under ledges by day
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **Hazard:** Dangerous, Venomous
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- oval yellow-brown disc scattered with bright electric-blue spots
- two blue stripes running the length of the tail
- thick tail with a deep fin fold underneath, carrying one or two barbs near the tip
- disc up to 35 cm across

A yellow-brown oval disc up to 35 cm (14 in) across, scattered with electric-blue spots, with two blue stripes down a thick tail. It is the ray everyone photographs, usually while it is wedged under a coral head with the tail sticking out.

The tail is armed. One or two serrated barbs sit near the tip, backed by venom glands in a groove, and the ray uses them by whipping the tail overhead - a defense aimed upward, at something pinning it down. Stings on divers happen almost exclusively when someone corners a ray under a ledge or stands on one in the shallows; the wound is deep, the venom causes severe pain and the barb often breaks off inside.

It feeds at night on sand flats, hunting worms, shrimps and small fish by pumping water through the mouth to blow them out of the sediment. By day it hides, which is why the species looks solitary but gathers in numbers on a night dive.

Unlike most rays it rarely buries itself, relying on the blue spots to break up its outline instead - a warning pattern rather than camouflage, which fits an animal that carries a weapon.

## Also known as

- **English:** reef stingray, Bluespotted Lagoon Ray, ribbontail stingray
- **Arabic:** شفنين مروحي الذيل أزرق النقاط, لما
- **Hebrew:** מחבטן הספירים
- **French:** Raie pastenague à points bleus, Raie pastenague à taches bleues
- **Italian:** Pastinaca a macchie blu, Trigone a macchie blu
- **German:** Blauflecken-Stechrochen, Blaupunktrochen
- **Spanish:** raya de arrecife
- **Portuguese:** Raia de pintas azuis
- **Dutch:** Blauwgespikkelde Pijlstaartrog
- **Polish:** Patelnica Niebieskoplama
- **Czech:** trnucha modroskvrnná
- **Japanese:** アオマダラエイ
- **Chinese:** 藍斑條尾魟
- **Russian:** Тэниура-лимма
- **DA:** Blåplettet pigrokke
- **FI:** täpläkeihäsrausku
- **HU:** kékpettyes tüskésrája
- **MSA:** Pari lalat
- **TH:** ปลากระเบนทอง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Raja lymma* Fabricius, 1775
- *Taeniura lymna* (Fabricius, 1775)
- *Trygon ornatus* Gray, 1830

## Range

Djibouti, East Africa, Eritrea, Federal Republic of Somalia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/whiptail-stingray/bluespotted-ribbontail-ray)*
*Updated: August 12, 2026*