Taxonomy and Phylogeny
The white-edge freshwater whipray was described by Leonard Compagno and Tyson Roberts in a 1982 issue of Environmental Biology of Fishes, with the specific epithet signifer (Latin for "sign-bearing") in reference to its distinctive coloration. The type specimen is an immature female 29 cm (11 in) across, collected from the mouth of the Sungai Ketungau off the Kapuas River in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Other common names for this species include freshwater stingray, pale whipray, and white-rimmed stingray. Within its genus, the white-edge freshwater whipway most closely resembles H. kittipongi, described in 2005. A 1999 phylogenetic analysis, based on cytochrome b sequences, found that it is closely related to H. gerrardi and H. imbricata, which form a sister species pair.
Read more about this topic: White-edge Freshwater Whipray