Astropecten polyacanthus Müller & Troschel 1842

Yiu, Sam King Fung & Mah, Christopher L., 2024, New Ecological Observations and Occurrence for Asteroidea and Echinoidea in Hong Kong, Zootaxa 5526 (1), pp. 1-69 : 42-43

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.5526.1.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:987FAD00-32A7-4E38-AFAD-6EAC8D808FB2

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14045839

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03BF87BF-2626-5D69-61C4-BCC2FDAB42F4

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Astropecten polyacanthus Müller & Troschel 1842
status

 

Astropecten polyacanthus Müller & Troschel 1842 View in CoL

FIGURE 31A–D View FIGURE 31

Comments

This species was identified based on characters outlined by Liao & Clark (1995). Astropecten polyanthus displays a very similar appearance to Astropecten vappa Müller & Troschel 1842 with which it shares several characters. The key diagnostic character used to identify this species was the nearly vertical edge formed by the superomarginal plates along each arm upon which multiple spines were present along the arm’s length. Comparisons with A. vappa show a minor but more prominent facing of the superomarginal plates along the surface of the abactinal surface. The two species appear closely related and molecular phylogeographic data presented by Zulliger & Lessios (2010) for Astropecten spp. showed that A. vappa from Brunei clustered with a clade within A. polyacanthus from New Zealand.

Astropecten polyacanthus is widely occurring throughout the Indo-Pacific but was listed by Liao & Clark (1995) as “nowhere abundant” on the southern coast of China. Zulliger & Lessios (2010) included multiple representatives from multiple localities of A. polyacanthus in their molecular phylogeography of Astropecten spp. Their data suggested multiple lineages were present within the morphospecies across its range.

Observations of A. polyacanthus ( Jangoux 1982) suggest that it displays feeding preferences and behavior similar other Astropecten spp. with gut contents showing remains from gastropods, bivalves, echinoderms and crustaceans.

This species has been mostly commonly observed with five rays. There is however, one observation of a 6-armed specimen ( Fig. 31C–D View FIGURE 31 ) from Trio Island in Hong Kong, which has not previously been reported from this region.

Occurrence/Distribution

Hong Kong, 3–15 m.

Outside Hong Kong. Widely occurring throughout the Indo-Pacific. Hawaiian Islands to Japan and Southern China, south to New Zealand and New Caledonia. Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, India, Madagascar, eastern coast of Africa, 0–185 m.

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