Acanthaster echinites (Ellis & Solander in Watt, 1786 )

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 : 273

(2) Acanthaster echinites (Ellis & Solander in Watt, 1786)

Original combination. Asterias echinites

Original source. Watt (1786): p. 206, pls. 60–62.

http://archive.org/stream/naturalhistoryof00elli#page/206/mode/2up (text)

http://archive.org/stream/naturalhistoryof00elli#page/n341/mode/2up (plates)

Nomenclatural status. Available name. Fixed as the type species of Acanthaster ; see Review Part C(1) below.

Type material. Holotype —the only specimen mentioned by Ellis & Solander in Watt (1786); see remark (1) below .

Type locality. Batavia (now Jakarta), Indonesia.

Remarks. (1) The text by Ellis and Solander states that the holotype specimen "was brought from Batavia by Captain W. Webber, and is in the possession of Dr. Fothergill" ( Watt 1786: 206). Like Ellis and Solander, however, Fothergill had died before the work was published (op. cit.: vi). It remains to be determined whether any part of his collection has been preserved.

(2) The original description mentions very few characters and does not provide sufficient information about live color, details of spines or pedicellaria.

(3) Various subsequent works have misrepresented the name Asterias echinites by spelling it incorrectly and/or crediting its nomenclatural authorship to someone other than Ellis & Solander. These errors have caused considerable confusion; see under " A. echinus " (species section 4), and under A. solaris (species section 3, remark (4)).