Coscinasterias acutispina ( Stimpson 1862 )

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 : 35-36

Coscinasterias acutispina ( Stimpson 1862)

FIGURE 26

Comments

One specimen of this species was observed showing eight arms with five arms significantly shorter and apparently in the course of regeneration. The observed specimen was blue-green in color with dark bands. This falls within the morphological range described by Liao & Clark (1995).

Coscinasterias acutispina feed upon abalone ( Hayashi 1988), limpets ( Iwasaki 1993) and other molluscs ( Harper 1994). Observations on fissiparity and asexual reproduction can be found in Edmonson (1935) and Haramoto et al. (2007). Japanese accounts document this species as being parasitized by the ascothoracidan barnacle Dendrogaster okadai ( Haramoto et al. 2007) . Nakamura & Fujita (2004) documented Ammothea hilgendorfi a sea spider (pycnogonid) associated with this species.

Occurrence/Distribution

Hong Kong, 10 m.

Outside of Hong Kong, southern China, Japan, Korea, West of Hawaiian Islands , 0– 10 m.

Figures

FIGURE 26. Coscinasterias acutispina. In situ observation. Photographer: Sam King Fung Yiu.