black diamond are they actually leopoldi????

[rayman]

Does anybody know for certian 100% that black diamond are infact the same species as p13 leopoldi.has their ever been any type of research done to actually prove it.

All scientific work I'm aware of say black ray in Xingu system = leopoldi.
Some leopoldi were caught from scientist at Sao Felix do Xingu and we would say these are BD but the scientist labeld them as leopoldi.

I have never seen any regular leos with belly spotting like bds??

Obviously leopoldi have a wide range of pattern, much wider than previously thought. But different pattern in the same freshwater stingray species is normal and not enough to make a new species.

I have done some research and p14 and p13 occur naturaly in the same place the xingu river systems.

The term p14 is used for two different rays and this is very confusing:

1. In the aqualog page 144 show a leopoldi with white ring pattern as p14, this is a leopoldi from Xingu system.

2. The black rays from Tapajos were labeled as p14 in a german magazine. This term was then used in the trade. So p14 mostly means a black ray from Tapajos. I prefer the term potamotrygon sp. "itaituba" for these rays from Tapajos to avoid confusion. (this term was used in an official cites document see table on page 4 http://www.cites.org/common/com/AC/24/EFS24-14-02.pdf the pearl ray is there as another undescribed species too, so these are no motoro)

At present I would say that BD is a (very nice) leopoldi variant.