Acanthaster brevispinus Fisher, 1917

Haszprunar, Gerhard & Spies, Martin, 2014, An integrative approach to the taxonomy of the crown-of-thorns starfish species group (Asteroidea: Acanthaster): A review of names and comparison to recent molecular data, Zootaxa 3841 (2), pp. 271-284 : 276

Acanthaster brevispinus Fisher, 1917

Original source. Fisher (1917): p. 92.

http://archive.org/stream/proceedingsofbio30biol#page/92/mode/1up

Nomenclatural status. Available name.

Type material. Holotype (United States National Museum; nr. 37,027).

Type locality. Sirun Island near Siasi, Sulu Archipelago, southwestern Philippines.

Remarks. (1) A detailed morphological redescription was provided by Fisher (1919: 442–443, pls. 117, 118, 131). The holotype has been figured by Birkeland & Lucas (1990: 15, fig. 5C,D).

(2) Morphology, molecular data ( Yasuda et al. 2006; Vogler et al. 2008, 2012), and distinct autecology (these starfish are not a coral pest) clearly support separation of A. brevispinus from the A. planci group, although members of the two species groups may interbreed ( Lucas & Jones 1976).