Both its common and scientific names refer to its ornate dorsal color pattern of many small, close-set dark spots or reticulations on a lighter background.

However, the reticulate whipray is only one of several large spotted stingrays in the Indo-Pacific which, coupled with the variability of its coloration with age and locality, has resulted in a great deal of taxonomic confusion.

It is highly susceptible to population depletion because of its large size, inshore habits, and low reproductive rate, and is additionally threatened by extensive habitat degradation.

In 1775, Carsten Niebuhr published Descriptiones animalium – avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium: quæ in itinere orientali observavit, the work of his late friend, the Swedish naturalist Peter Forsskål.

[2] Forsskål's account formed the basis for two subsequent writings that named the spotted ray as a distinct species: Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre's Raia scherit in 1788, and Johann Friedrich Gmelin's Raja uarnak in 1789.

[3][4] In 1837, Johannes Peter Müller and Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle included the reticulate whipray in the newly created genus Himantura; David Starr Jordan and Barton Warren Evermann made it the type species in 1896.

All five species are very similar in size and shape, and their colour patterns may overlap to some extent,[7] resulting in a long history of taxonomic confusion that only recently has begun to be untangled.

[3] The pectoral fin disc of the reticulate whipray is diamond-shaped and wider than long, with the leading margins almost straight and the snout and outer corners quadrangular.

[13] Adult rays have a wide band of flattened, heart-shaped dermal denticles that extend from between the eyes to the tail spine, increasing in density with age, along with two large pearl thorns at the center of the back.

Adults generally have a dorsal pattern of numerous closely spaced dark brown spots or reticulations on a beige to yellow-brown background, which becomes blackish past the spine with lighter bands on the sides.

[1][13] Bottom-dwelling in nature, the reticulate whipray is generally encountered over sandy flats near beaches, in lagoons, and around coral reefs, from the intertidal zone to offshore waters 50 m (160 ft) deep or more.

[19] This species is tolerant of low salinities and has been known to enter estuaries and mangrove swamps,[20] though records from fresh water in Southeast Asia are unverified and may represent misidentifications.

[23] A lateral line is present on the ray and extends to the tip of its extremely long tail, giving it advance warning of approaching predators such as bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) and hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna).

A few extremely rare encounters have documented dolphins being injured, even killed, from wounds caused from a Reticulate Whipray’s barbs found inserted within porpoise’s sides.

[29] Himantura uarnak play an important ecological role as a mesopredator and are thought to exert a strong top-down impact on nearshore environments in the absence of human disturbance.

[31] Known parasites of this species include Anthrobothrium loculatum,[32] Dendromonocotyle colorni,[33] Halysiorhynchus macrocephalus,[34] Monocotyle helicophallus, M. multiparous, and M. spiremae,[35] Thaumatocotyle australensis,[36] and Tylocephalum chiralensis.

[38] Like other stingrays, the reticulate whipray is aplacental viviparous: the developing embryos are initially sustained by yolk, which is later supplanted by histotroph ("uterine milk", enriched with proteins and lipids) produced by the mother.

[19] While the 'uarnak' species complex appear morphologically and physiologically similar, hybridization is unlikely due to interspecific differences in the female urogenital sinus and the varying distal length and shape of the male’s clasper, which result in mechanical isolation.

[39] This species is caught by intensive artisanal and commercial fisheries operating in parts of the western Indian Ocean, using bottom trawls, gillnets and tangle nets, beach seines, and longlines.

[3] Traditional medicine in India used to use the reticulate whiprays as lactogogues; in which consuming the meat was found to enhance milk production for new mothers (particularly by poorer sections in society.

)[41] In addition to this, the whiprays have been used to treat dysentery, wheezing and bronchitis in Tamil Nadu state, mainly by coastal and tribal people in South Asia and Myanmar.

[47] Protecting healthy mangroves, seagrass beds, and mudflat habitats ensures food security and refuges for megafauna including the reticulate whipray.