---
title: Porcupine Ray (Urogymnus asperrimus)
scientific_name: Urogymnus asperrimus
common_name: Porcupine Ray
taxon: Whiptail stingray
conservation_status: EN - Endangered
published: 2024-11-04T21:01:06.816Z
updated: 2026-08-12T08:20:49.126Z
tags: Porcupine Ray, Urogymnus asperrimus, Whiptail stingray, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/rays/whiptail-stingray/porcupine-ray
---

# Porcupine Ray (*Urogymnus asperrimus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Whiptail stingray (*Dasyatidae*)
- **Size:** up to 1.5 m across
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Sand, rubble and seagrass, often buried
- **Reproduction:** Live-bearer, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** EN - Endangered

## How to recognise it

- nearly circular gray disc covered in coarse thorns and tubercles
- thick tail without any sting and without fin folds
- small eyes set well forward, spiracles behind them
- disc up to 1.5 m across

A nearly circular gray disc up to 1.5 m (5 ft) across, covered from snout to tail in coarse thorns and blunt tubercles, with a thick tapering tail that carries no sting - the only member of the whole stingray family that has lost it.

The armor replaced the weapon. Where its relatives defend themselves with a venomous barb, this ray relies on being unswallowable: a rasp-textured disc that a shark cannot grip and cannot easily bite. Old skins were used as sandpaper and as grip panels on sword hilts for exactly that reason.

It feeds on the bottom at night, taking worms, crabs and small fish out of sand by pumping water through the mouth to excavate them, and spends the day buried with only the eyes and spiracles showing.

Because it has no sting, it is one of the few large rays that is genuinely harmless to a diver in the water. It is also uncommon, slow to reproduce, and taken across its range for its skin - the same feature that protects it from sharks is what makes it worth money.

## Also known as

- **English:** porcupine ray, Rough-skinned Ray, Roughskin Stingaree
- **Arabic:** راي لساع شائك, راي الشيهم, راي النيص
- **French:** Pastenague sans dard, Raie africaine, Raie porc-épic
- **Italian:** Pastinaca porcospino, Trigone porcospino
- **German:** Igelrochen, Stachelschweinrochen
- **Spanish:** Raya puercoespín
- **Portuguese:** Raia-porco-espinho
- **Dutch:** Egelpijlstaartrog
- **Czech:** trnucha indická
- **Japanese:** イバラエイ, Ibaraei
- **Chinese:** 糙沙粒魟, 魴仔
- **Russian:** Африканский голохвост
- **DA:** Pindsvinerokke
- **FA:** لقمهماهی تشی
- **FI:** siilirausku
- **TH:** ปลากระเบนขนุน, ปลากระเบนใบขนุน
- **VI:** Cá đuối bồng da gai

## Scientific synonyms

- *Anacanthus africanus* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Rachinotus africanus* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Raja africana* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Raja asperrima* Bloch & Schneider, 1801
- *Rhachinotus africanus* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Urogymnosus africanus* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Urogymnus africana* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Urogymnus africanus* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Urogymnus aperrimus* (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- *Urogymnus asperrimus solanderi* Whitley, 1939
- *Urogymnus rhombeus* Klunzinger, 1871

## Range

Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Western Indian Ocean

---

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