The anterior nasal flap extends well past the inner end of the nostrils, nearly meeting at the midline of the snout. They are tan to dark brown dorsally with dark spots (KZN) or brown and white rings. The snout has a translucent pale area on each side of the rostrum (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004).

Endemic, southern Angola to KZN in depths of 0 to 118m (Rossouw 1983, Compagno et al. 1989, Heemstra and Heemstra 2004).

NAM, WC, EC, KZN Previously thought to extend northwards up the west coast into NAM (Compagno et al. 1989) but this may be as a result of misidentification with A. blochii (C. Attwood, UCT, pers. obs.). There is a possibility of two separate stocks, one in southern Angola to NAM and one along the southeastern seaboard of SA (Burgess et al. 2006). The latter population appears to have different colour variants with those in KZN having simple dark spots, while those in the EC and WC have brown spots ringed with white (Compagno et al. 1989).

Possible inshore offshore migration. Lesser guitarfish are common in the surf-zone along sandy beaches during summer, but not in winter (Rossouw 1983). It is possible that they move offshore into deeper water where they are taken as bycatch by inshore trawlers (Buxton et al. 1984). A longshore movement is also possible and the 70 recaptures (1.1%) obtained to date have shown a mean distance travelled of 42 km (ORI Tagging Project unpublished data).

Adults: Diet includes benthic invertebrates such as small crustaceans, sand mussels and polychaete worms (Heemstra and Heemstra 2004, Burgess et al. 2006). The study by Harris et al. (1988) of the guitarfish diet incorrectly names A. annulatus. Most recent work shows that their subject was most likely A. blochii (C. Attwood, UCT, unpublished data) Juveniles: Unknown

Possible inshore offshore migration. Lesser guitarfish are common in the surf-zone along sandy beaches during summer, but not in winter (Rossouw 1983). A long shore movement is also possible and the 70 recaptures (1.1%) obtained to date have shown a mean distance travelled of 42km (ORI Tagging Project unpubl. data).

Inshore, Offshore (>30m)