Munchkin Skate
Raia caudaspinosa von Bonde & Swart, 1923: 8, fig. 1, pl. 21. Holotype (unique): whereabouts unknown. Type locality: KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, southwestern Indian Ocean.
Local synonymy: Raia caudaspinosa: Smith, 1949a: 67, not fig. 72 (= Leucoraja wallacei, in part); Smith, 1965: 67 (in part, not fig. 72). Raia albalinea: von Bonde & Swart, 1923: 6, fig. 1, pl. 20. Raia plutonia: Barnard, 1925: 68 (in part, for types of Raia albalinea). Raja caudaspinosa: Norman, 1935: 37; Fowler, 1941: 376; Hulley, 1970: 170, fig. 7a–c, pl. 3a–b; Hulley, 1972a: 86, figs. 58–59; Hulley, 1986: 120, fig. 25.7; Stehmann, 1995: 109. Raja (Rajella) caudaspinosa: Compagno et al., 1989: 96, pl.; Compagno et al., 1991: 103; Ebert et al., 1991: 77. Rajella caudaspinosa: Compagno, 1999: 117; Compagno & Ebert, 2007: 135, fig. 5a; Ebert & Compagno, 2007: 121; Ebert et al., 2008: 94; NPOA, 2013: 53; Ebert, 2014: 76, fig. 123; Weigmann et al., 2014a: 384; da Silva et al., 2015: 247; Ebert, 2015: 185, fig. 210; Ebert & van Hees, 2015: 147; Last et al., 2016f: 19; Last et al., 2016g: 337, fig. 19.122; Weigmann, 2016: 958;
South Africa voucher material: SAIAB 21912, SAIAB 25740, SAIAB 25742, SAIAB 25743, SAIAB 25747, SAIAB 25751, SAIAB 25782, SAIAB 25783, SAIAB 25784, SAIAB 26002, SAIAB 26003, SAIAB 26004, SAIAB 26005, SAIAB 26006, SAIAB 26007, SAIAB 26008, SAIAB 26009, SAIAB 26010, SAIAB 26330, SAIAB 26331, SAIAB 26332, SAIAB 26333, SAIAB 26334, SAIAB 26393, SAIAB 26394, SAIAB 26395, SAIAB 26396, SAIAB 40952, SAIAB 44354, SAIAB 64277.
South African distribution: The Orange River (NC) to Algoa Bay (EC), with at least one record from KZN.
Remarks: The species is near endemic to South Africa with most records from south of the Orange River to Cape Point, and with only a few scattered records between Algoa Bay and KZN. It reportedly occurs to south of L̹deritz, southern Namibia, but during a series of research surveys no specimens were caught north of the Orange River (Compagno et al., 1991; Compagno & Ebert, 2007).
Conservation status: LC (2019).