 The first scientific description of the plain maskray was authored by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation ( CSIRO ) researcher Peter Last in a 1987 issue of Memoirs of the National Museum of Victoria . The specific name <unk> comes from the Latin an ( " not " ) and <unk> ( " marked " ) , and refers to the ray 's coloration . The holotype is a male 21 @.@ 2 cm ( 8 @.@ 3 in ) across , caught off Western Australia ; several <unk> were also designated . Last tentatively placed the species in the genus Dasyatis , noting that it belonged to the " maskray " species group that also included the <unk> stingray ( then Dasyatis <unk> ) . In 2008 , Last and William White elevated the <unk> group to the rank of full genus as Neotrygon , on the basis of morphological and molecular phylogenetic evidence . 
