It is found over sandy or muddy bottoms in shallow coastal waters off southern Brazil, and probably Uruguay and Argentina.

The groovebelly stingray can be distinguished by a prominent W-shaped furrow on its underside behind the last pair of gill slits, as well as completely smooth skin in all but the largest individuals.

The main threat to its population is likely bycatch mortality from shrimp trawlers, although habitat degradation is also a concern.

Hugo Santos and Marcelo de Carvalho formally described the groovebelly stingray in a 2004 volume of Boletim do Museu Nacional, giving it the name Dasyatis hypostigma, from the Greek hypo ("ventral") and stigma ("mark").

[3] The original publication sometimes used the spelling hipostigma, which was subsequently struck as incorrect by the authors, under the Principle of the First Reviser (International Code of Zoological Nomenclature Article 24.2).

[3] The groovebelly stingray is found along the coast of southern Brazil from Espírito Santo to Rio Grande do Sul, though it likely occurs as far north as Bahia and as far south as Mar del Plata, Argentina.

[3] The groovebelly stingray has a diamond-shaped pectoral fin disk slightly wider than long, with nearly straight front margins and a barely projecting snout tip.