Patiria Gray, 1840

O’Loughlin, P. Mark & Waters, Jonathan M., 2004, A molecular and morphological revision of genera of Asterinidae (Echinodermata: Asteroidea), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 61 (1), pp. 1-40 : 28-29

Patiria Gray

Figures 1 (clade II), 3a, 4d, 15d–f

Patiria Gray, 1840: 290 .— Gray, 1847: 82–83.— Gray, 1866: 16.— Sladen, 1889: 384.— Verrill, 1913: 480, 482.— Verrill, 1914: 263–264.— Fisher, 1919: 410.— Fisher, 1940: 269.— Fisher, 1941: 451–455, pl. 70 fig. 1.— Spencer and Wright, 1966: U69.— Bernasconi, 1973: 336.— Clark and Courtman-Stock, 1976: 78.— Campbell and Rowe, 1997: 131, 135.— Dartnall et al., 2003: 12.

Diagnosis. Rays 5, medium to short-rayed stellate, not pentagonal, rays pointed distally; noticeable integument; flat actinally, convex abactinally; primary abactinal plates strongly or weakly crescentiform, close subpaxilliform cover of short, thick or thin, columnar or subglobose spinelets, not acicular or sacciform, secondary plates with smaller spinelets; lacking pedicellariae; papulate areas extensive, papular spaces large, numerous secondary plates and papulae per papular space; series of spinelet-covered superomarginal and inferomarginal plates, spinelets on thick rounded inferomarginals extend onto actinal surface; actinal plates in oblique series; actinal spines in mid-interradius thick, combs of 4–6; lacking complete superambulacral series of plates, present distally; superactinal plates present, multiple plate struts in larger specimens.

Type species. Patiria coccinea Gray, 1840 (original designation) (junior synonym of Asterias miniata Brandt, 1835 mistakenly recorded from South Africa, synonymy by Mortensen, 1933).

Other species. P. chilensis (Lütken, 1859) ; P. pectinifera (Müller and Troschel, 1842) .

Material examined. P. chilensis . Chile, Arica, NMV F95674 (3); Peru, NMV F97442 (1); F97443 (1).

P. miniata . California, NMV F97444 (1); F97448 (1); F98040 (1); F98041 (1); F98042 (1).

P. pectinifera . Japan, Toyama Bay , NMV F95672 (7) ; F95673 (2).

Description with species variations. Rays 5 (sometimes 6); noticeable integument; interradial margin incurved, medium to short-rayed stellate, not pentagonal, rays distally pointed to narrowly rounded; flat actinally, convex abactinally, body thick, sides of rays steep; size large ( miniata up to R = 85 mm) to small ( chilensis up to R = 21 mm); lacking pedicellariae; gonopores abactinal.

Abactinal surface uneven; appearance dominated by subpaxilliform spinous primary plates, variably crescentiform, and large papular spaces with smaller spinous secondary plates; plates in irregular longitudinal series; papulate areas extensive, to near distal end of rays and near margin; papular spaces with numerous secondary plates and small papulae (up to about 25 of each); lacking longitudinal series of large single papulae along sides of rays; disc weakly bordered by discontinuous series of larger radial and smaller interradial plates; abactinal primary plates variably crescentiform or oval or round or linear, with spinelet-bearing elevations, variably with 1 or more notches for papulae; carinal series variably present, plates separated by large papular spaces; cleared plates with glassy convexities prominent ( chilensis ) or not; abactinal spinelets opaque, short columnar, thick ( miniata ), or subglobose ( pectinifera ), or thin ( chilensis ), in section round ( chilensis , pectinifera ) or square ( miniata ); spinelets on primary plates in subpaxilliform transverse or round clusters, very close and palisade-like ( miniata ) or slightly more spaced ( chilensis , pectinifera ), on secondary plates shorter, splayed; series of subequal superomarginal and inferomarginal plates, covered with spinelets; spinelets on thick rounded inferomarginals extend onto actinal surface; projecting inferomarginals form acute margin.

Actinal plates in oblique series.

Actinal spines per plate: oral 5–7; suboral 2–7; furrow 3–4 proximally; subambulacral 2–4; adradial actinal plates fully spinous; actinal interradial in combs of 3–8 proximally, 4–6 distally; actinal interradial spines conical to digitiform to spatulate.

Superambulacral plates not present as series, sometimes present in mid-ray ( chilensis ) or absent ( miniata , pectinifera ), present distally linking with actinal or superactinal or abactinal plates; superactinal plates present, multiple plate struts in larger specimens.

Distribution. N and E Pacific Ocean, Japan, Alaska, California, Peru, Chile; 0– 300 m.

Remarks. Fisher (1908, 1911), Mortensen (1933), Hayashi (1940) and A.M. Clark (1983) considered Patiria to be a junior synonym of Asterina , while Verrill (1913), Fisher (1919, 1940, 1941) and Clark and Courtman-Stock (1976) maintained Patiria as a valid genus. Verrill (1914) considered it to be significant that Patiria lacked pedicellariae. Spencer and Wright (1966) listed Callopatiria and Enoplopatiria as junior synonyms of Patiria . Hayashi (1973) considered Patiria and Patiriella to be junior synonyms of Asterina . A.M. Clark (1983), Clark and Downey (1992) and A.M. Clark (1993) considered Enoplopatiria and Patiria to be junior synonyms of Asterina . Campbell and Rowe (1997) “accepted the separate generic status [of Patiria ] until the matter is more clearly resolved”.

Waters et al. (2004) found that the three species of Patiria , including the type species, constituted a single clade (II). They confirmed an earlier result, based also on molecular data ( Hart et al., 1997), that confirmed the type and one of the species to be sister taxa. Together there is strong molecular evidence for the generic status of Patiria , remote from Asterina and Patiriella . Morphologically, Patiria is distinguished from Asterina by the presence of superambulacral and superactinal plates, and from Patiriella by the discrete rays, dense subpaxilliform clusters of granuliform spinelets, and more numerous actinal interradial spines.

Figures

Figure 1. Phylogenetic relationships of asterinid mtDNA sequences (after Waters et al., 2004). Support for particular reconstructions is indicated by bootstrap values (>50%; in bold) and by decay indices (in italics). MtDNA Clades I–VI are identified on the basis of high bootstrap support. Generic assignments made in this paper appear on the right.