The Amazon mainstem & white-water tributaries
27 speciesGreater Amazonia · the Solimões, Amazon, Madeira & Purus
The vast, sediment-rich white-water heart of the Amazon — the Solimões and the lower Amazon and their great tributaries the Madeira, Purus and Juruá, with their floodplain lakes and sandy beaches. The centre of river-stingray diversity, home to the motoro, the porcupine and reticulated rays, the long-tailed Plesiotrygon and the round Heliotrygon.
- Heliotrygon gomesi
- Heliotrygon rosai
- Paratrygon aiereba
- Plesiotrygon iwamae
- Plesiotrygon nana
- Potamotrygon adamastor
- Potamotrygon albimaculata
- Potamotrygon amazona
- Potamotrygon constellata
- Potamotrygon falkneri
- Potamotrygon garmani
- Potamotrygon histrix
- Potamotrygon humerosa
- Potamotrygon jabuti
- Potamotrygon leopoldi
- Potamotrygon limai
- Potamotrygon marquesi
- Potamotrygon motoro
- Potamotrygon ocellata
- Potamotrygon orbignyi
- Potamotrygon rex
- Potamotrygon schroederi
- Potamotrygon scobina
- Potamotrygon signata
- Potamotrygon tatianae
- Potamotrygon tigrina
- Potamotrygon wallacei
The clearwater & blackwater shield rivers
7 speciesAmazonia · the Xingu, Tapajós, Tocantins & Rio Negro
The clear and blackwater rivers draining the ancient Brazilian and Guiana shields — the Xingu, Tapajós and Tocantins to the south, the Rio Negro to the north. Warm, soft, acidic, low-sediment water over rock and sand. The home of the spectacular pearl-spotted rays — the black-diamond Xingu ray (P. leopoldi), P. henlei and P. jabuti — several of them narrow-range endemics of a single river.
The Orinoco & the llanos
3 speciesNorthern South America · Venezuela & eastern Colombia
The Orinoco and its vast seasonal grasslands, the llanos of Venezuela and eastern Colombia. Sheet-flooded in the wet season and shrinking to channels and pools in the dry — the range of P. orbignyi, P. schroederi and the motoro of the north, and the giant Paratrygon ceja rays of the deeper rivers.
The Paraná & Paraguay
4 speciesSouthern South America · the lower Paraná, Paraguay & Pantanal
The southern river system — the Paraná, Paraguay and the great Pantanal wetland of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. Cooler and more seasonal than Amazonia, with sandy channels and floodplain lagoons. The range of the short-tailed and large-bodied southern rays — P. falkneri, P. brachyura, P. histrix — and the wide-ranging motoro.
The Magdalena & Maracaibo
2 speciesTrans-Andean Colombia & Venezuela
The isolated rivers west and north of the Andes — the Magdalena–Cauca of Colombia and the Maracaibo basin of Venezuela. Cut off from Amazonia by the mountains, each holds its own endemic river stingray: P. magdalenae in the Magdalena and P. yepezi in the Maracaibo drainage, narrow-range species under pressure from a densely-settled, heavily-modified landscape.