A new species of Astrosarkus from Western Australia including new Mesophotic occurrences of Indian Ocean Oreasteridae (Valvatida, Asteroidea)
Author
Mah, Christopher L.
text
Memoirs of Museum Victoria
2023
2023-09-25
82
143
165
http://dx.doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.2023.82.08
journal article
10.24199/j.mmv.2023.82.08
1447-2554
12214383
Astrosarkus
Mah 2003
Diagnosis.
Body pentagonal to weakly stellate, R/r=1.25–1.4. Arms and disk confluent with rounded arm tips, with thick smooth, soft “flesh” imbued with channels through the body wall; highly modified abactinal, marginal and actinal plates. Surface has continuous granular cover. Larger accessory structures present or absent. Papular areas extensive on discrete mound-like regions on abactinal, lateral surface. Internal, fixed, spine-like processes on ambulacrals. Furrow spines 10– 11, subambulacral spines, 2–5. Modified from
Mah (2003)
.
Comments.
This account reports on new specimens and observations from Australian as well as other Indian Ocean localities. At the time of description, known distribution was limited to the tropical South Pacific to
Reunion Island
.
Astrosarkus
is now known to be widely distributed at mesophotic depths throughout the tropical Indo-Pacific (
30– 150 m
), including southern
Japan
and
Guam
(
Kogure et al., 2009
) to the
Marshall Islands
/South Pacific, the coast of northern
Australia
(
Queensland
and
Western Australia
) and the western Indian Ocean (
Reunion Island
,
Mayotte
,
Maldives
).