The fish is possibly named in honor of zoologist Edward Turner Bennett (1797-1836),[3] German biologists Johannes Peter Müller and Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle described the Bennett's stingray as Trygon bennettii in their 1839–1841 Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen.

It is a bottom-dweller that occurs in the coastal waters of the Indo-Pacific region, from India, through Indochina, to southern China, Japan, and perhaps the Philippines; it seems to be most common in the northwestern Pacific.

[4] The Bennett's stingray has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disc almost as wide as long, with straight leading margins converging on a triangular, moderately protruding snout.

The tail is whip-like and can measure three times the length of the disc, proportionately longer than any other North Pacific Dasyatis species.

[5] There is a stinging spine on the upper surface of the tail, and a fin fold underneath measuring 60–67% the disc width.