Astropecten monacanthus Sladen 1889

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 : 41-42

Astropecten monacanthus Sladen 1889

Comments

A conspicuous species among the southern China Astropecten species, in that it completely lacks spines from all of the superomarginal plates. Although not included as an image herein, recent photos of this species in Hong Kong have turned up on iNaturalist ( Gohulee 2023, Sai_yeung_choi 2023). Based on these observations there appear to be at least two color variants, one is a more solid colored pink-grey with a dark stripe along its arm versus the latter which is grey with dark bands and patterns on the disk. Future sampling of these specimens may reveal greater significance to these differently patterned variants.

Occurrence/Distribution

Hong Kong, exact depth unclear but shallow.

Outside Hong Kong. Throughout the Indo-Pacific. Southern China, including Hainan Island, the Philippines, Indonesia, northern Australia, East Africa and Red Sea, 0– 50 m. (after Clark & Liao 1995; Marsh & Fromont 2020)