Longsnout Butterfly Ray, Gymnura crebripunctata
Longsnout Butterfly Ray, Gymnura crebripunctata. Underwater photograph taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, May 2022. Photograph courtesy of Maude Jette, Dive Zihuantanejo, www.Divezihuatanejo.com.
Longsnout Butterfly Ray, Gymnura crebripunctata. Underwater photographs taken in Zihuantanejo Bay, Guerrero, March 2026. Photographs and identifications courtesy of Ron Woheau, Zihuantanejo.
The Longsnout Butterfly Ray, Gymnura crebripunctata, is a member of the Butterfly Ray or Gymnuridae Family, and they are also known as the Mazatlán Butterfly Ray and the Peruvian Butterfly Ray and in Mexico as raya mariposa picuda. Globally, there are sixteen species in the genus Gymnura, of which three are found in Mexican waters, one in the Atlantic and two in the Pacific Ocean.
The Longsnout Butterfly Ray has an extremely broad rhomboidal disc-shaped body that is much wider than they are long with a bluntly pointed snout. Their head has a bluntly pointed snout, very small eyes and spiracles on top, and an arched mouth equipped with numerous small teeth in bands. Their spiracles have a deeply concave inner margin. Their pectoral fins are not separated from the head giving rise to their triangularly-shaped body. Dorsally they are brown in color with dense irregular small white dots along the front margin of the disc. The ventral side is white with yellow-copper markings with dark pectoral fin tips. The caudal fin is subtly banded. The front margin of the disc is straight. A key to identification is the distance between eyes to snout tip is greater than the distance between the eyes. Their pectoral fins extend well behind the pelvic fins. The pelvic fins have one lobe. Their tail is very short and very slender and approximately one-half the length of the disc without a spine. They have no caudal or dorsal fins. Their skin is smooth and without denticles.
The Longsnout Butterfly Ray is a demersal species that is found in shallow coastal waters in bays and along beaches and within silty and muddy channels and estuaries at depths up to 30 m (100 feet). The are sedentary in nature lying partially submerged in the substrate. They reach a maximum of 81 cm (2 feet 8 inches) in width and 31 cm (12 inches) in length. They are dimorphic with females being larger than males. They feed on buried bivalves, crabs, crustaceans, mollusks and small fishes. Reproduction is ovoviparity (aplacental viviparity), with embryos feeding initially on yolk, then receiving additional nourishment from the mother by indirect absorption of uterine fluid enriched with mucus, fat or protein through specialized structures. Their fecundity level is unknown. The Longsnout Butterfly Ray is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, diet, growth, habitat, longevity, movement patterns, and reproduction.
The Longsnout Butterfly Ray is found in all Mexican waters of the Pacific Ocean with the exception that they are absent from north of Magdalena Bay along the central and northwest coasts of the Baja Peninsula.
The Longsnout Butterfly Ray is a straight-forward identification due to its wide narrow disc and short tail. The California Butterfly Ray, Gymnura marmorata (thinner body; thinner tail; tip of snout less than distance between eyes; found along both coasts of the Baja Peninsula.
From a conservation perspective the Longsnout Butterfly Ray is currently considered to be Near Threatened with declining populations. They are also commonly taken artisanal gillnets, beach seines, and longlines, and in industrial demersal trawl fisheries that target shrimp and hake and are normally discarded with a high mortality rate. They are sold dried for human consumption in local markets and considered to be essential for subsistence fishermen. They are subject to intense fishing pressure with the catch being mostly unregulated and the limited number of seasonal bands put in place are not enforced.