Patiriella Verrill, 1913

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 : 29-31

Patiriella Verrill

Figures 1 , 3b , 16e–f

Patiriella Verrill, 1913: 480 , 483–484.— Verrill, 1914: 263.— Fisher, 1919: 410.—H.L. Clark, 1946: 134.— Spencer and Wright, 1966: U69.— Shepherd, 1968: 745.— Dartnall, 1970: 73–74.— Dartnall, 1971: 39–40.— Bernasconi, 1973: 341.—Clark, A.M. and Courtman-Stock, 1976: 80.—Clark, A.M., 1983: 364–367, 378, fig. 3c, 4.—Clark, A.M. and Downey, 1992: 178, 192.—Clark, A.M., 1993: 224.— Rowe, 1995: 39.— Campbell and Rowe, 1997: 129–131.— McKnight (in Clark and McKnight), 2001: 155.— O’Loughlin et al., 2002: 701.— Dartnall et al., 2003: 11–12.— Waters et al., 2004: 874, 875, 877. (Part).

Diagnosis. Rays 5, interradial margin straight to incurved, subpentagonal to short discrete rays, ends pointed or broadly or narrowly rounded; noticeable integument; plates on rays irregularly arranged; abactinal spinelets granuliform to digitiform, not webbed, in close to spaced distribution over projecting surface of plates; regular series of granuliform or digitiform spinelet-covered superomarginal and inferomarginal plates; actinal plates in oblique series; actinal adradial spines in incomplete series; actinal spines digitiform to short conical, no more than 3 per plate; superambulacral plates present from midray or distally only; superactinal plates present as single and multiple-plate supports.

Type species. Asterina (Asteriscus) regularis Verrill, 1867 (original designation).

Other species. P. inornata Livingstone, 1933 ; P. oliveri (Benham, 1911) (junior synonym: Patiriella nigra H.L. Clark, 1938 , by Rowe, 1995); Patiriella paradoxa Campbell and Rowe, 1997 .

Material examined. P. inornata Livingstone, 1933 . Holotype. Western Australia, AM J3198 .

P. nigra . Paratype. Lord Howe I., AM J4439 (1).

P. oliveri . Kermadec Is, MNZ EC4805 (2 of 7); Lord Howe I., AM G11519 (2); G2247 (1).

P. paradoxa . Holotype. Oman, BMNH 1997.1016 . Paratypes. BMNH 1997.1017 (1); BMNH 1997.1018 (2).

A. regularis . Syntypes. New Zealand, Auckland, H. Edwards, 1866, YPM 988 A (1), B (1, partially cleared), C (2) . Other material. See O’Loughlin et al. (2002).

Description with species variations. Rays 5, rarely 6; interradial margin straight to incurved, form subpentagonal to discrete rays with ends broadly rounded to pointed; integument cover sometimes evident ( regularis ); body flat actinally, low convex abactinally; rays elevated, sides steep; size medium ( regularis up to R = 39 mm); lacking pedicellariae; rare evidence of fissiparity ( regularis ); abactinal gonopores.

Abactinal plates on upper rays in longitudinally series ( oliveri ) or irregular ( inornata , paradoxa , regularis ); carinal plate series ray length ( oliveri ) or short proximal ( regularis ) or not evident ( inornata , paradoxa ), plates doubly notched; variably regular longitudinal series of crescentiform plates on lower sides of rays; papulate areas extensive, non-papulate interradial area extensive ( inornata , oliveri ) or narrow ( paradoxa , regularis ); papular spaces large, 1–4 large ( inornata , paradoxa ) or numerous small papulae and irregular secondary plates per space ( oliveri , regularis ); proximal primary abactinal plates irregular ( inornata , paradoxa ) or crescentiform ( oliveri , regularis ), with spinelet-bearing ridges ( oliveri , regularis ) or not; glassy convexities below elevations on denuded plates ( oliveri , paradoxa , regularis ), or reticulations ( inornata ); abactinal spinelets granuliform, subglobose to subconical ( inornata , paradoxa ), or proximally short columnar, distally short subsacciform ( regularis ), or digitiform, many slightly widened terminally ( oliveri ); spinelets not webbed, in close arrangement on plates ( oliveri , paradoxa , regularis ) or spread ( inornata ); disc variably bordered by 5 radial and 5 interradial plates; superomarginal and inferomarginal plates in regular series, with typical abactinal spinelets; margin formed by projecting inferomarginals.

Actinal plates in oblique series (irregular proximally in inornata , paradoxa ); proximal actinal interradial areas sometimes not plated.

Actinal spines per plate: oral 4–6; suboral 0–4; furrow 2–4 proximally, short, webbed; subambulacral 1–3, tall; adradial actinal 0–1, short, incomplete series; actinal interradial 1–3 proximally, 1–2 short distally; actinal interradial spines digitiform, slightly tapered ( regularis ), slightly swollen ( oliveri ), or short conical ( inornata ), or short thick columnar ( paradoxa ).

Superambulacral plates present distally ( inornata not examined distally); superactinal plates present as single and multiple-plate struts.

Distribution. New Zealand, North and South Is, Stewart and Chatham Is; Australia, Lord Howe I., New South Wales, Tasmania; Western Australia; Oman; 0– 92 m.

Remarks. O’Loughlin et al. (2002) did not report on the four syntypes of Asterina regularis Verrill, 1867 in their systematic review of Patiriella . They have now been examined and are consistent with O’Loughlin et al.’s (2002) redescription. Waters et al. (2004) presented a molecular phylogeny in which P. regularis fell on a clade remote from those on which all other species of Patiriella were included (clades III part, IV part, and V, in Fig. 1 ). The species in clade III (part) were removed to Meridiastra , those in clade IV (part) to Cryptasterina by Dartnall et al. (2003), and those in clade V to Parvulastra .

The diagnostic characters of P. regularis are: subpentagonal to very short-rayed form; abactinal plates on rays not in longitudinal series; spinlets ganuliform, short columnar; large papular spaces with numerous papulae and secondary plates; actinal plates in oblique series; few superambulacral plates; superactinal plates present. Patiriella is distinguished from Meridiastra by lacking longitudinal series of plates on the rays, by oblique series of actinal plates, and by having superactinal plates. Patiriella is distinguished from Cryptasterina and Parvulastra by lacking longitudinal series of plates on the rays, and by having large papular spaces with numerous papulae and secondary plates.

On morphological grounds P. inornata and P. paradoxa are retained in Patiriella . Rowe (1995) transferred Asterina oliveri to Patiriella . P. oliveri has many of the characters of Patiriella , but is retained in Patiriella with reservation because of the regular carinal and longitudinal series of plates on the rays. On morphological grounds, Asterina dyscrita H.L. Clark, 1923 is removed from Patiriella to Parvulastra .

Patiriella tangribensis Domantay and Acosta, 1970 is judged to be nomen dubium. Domantay and Acosta (1970) established the species without type material being designated, and the description and figures are not adequate to diagnose the material (reference was made to an absence of marginal plates). It was distinguished only from Patiriella exigua , which does not occur in the type locality ( Philippines).

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.

Figure 3. Abactinal views of type species of Asterinidae genera (continued; Tremaster mirabilis is figure 17e). a, Patiria miniata (R = 67 mm, NMV F98040). b, Patiriella regularis (R = 31 mm, AM J5594). c, Pseudonepanthia gotoi (R = 74 mm, holotype, USNM 36899). d, Pseudopatiria obtusa (R = 54 mm, holotype, BMNH 1938.6.23.24). e, Stegnaster inflatus (R = 45 mm, NMV F95675). f, Tegulaster emburyi (R = 19 mm, holotype, AM J5605).

Figure 16. a–d, Parvulastra exigua: a, cleared ray (R = 10 mm, NMV F98062); b, denuded abactinal granuliform spinelets (NMV F98062); c, actinal interradius (R = 9 mm, NMV F98062); d, oral spines (R = 10 mm, NMV F97450). e–f, Patiriella oliveri (R = 28 mm, MNZ EC4805): e, abactinal disc and spinelets; f, absence of superambulacral plates (left arrow), presence of superactinal plates (right arrow). g–i, Pseudopatiria obtusa (R = 54 mm, holotype, BMNH 1938.6.23.24): g, section of ray with absence of both superambulacral and superactinal plates; h, abactinal subpaxilliform spinelets, and pedicellaria (lower left); i, actinal spines.