Need starfish ID
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Steve and his Animals
Well-Known Member
1. Euretaster insignis
2. Guessing a species of Leiaster, possibly leachi
3. Fromia nodosa
2. Guessing a species of Leiaster, possibly leachi
3. Fromia nodosa
VintageReefer
2500 Club Member
@ISpeakForTheSeas any id on number 1?
1 - Striking Sea Star, Euretaster insignis/E. cribrosus; the two species are currently differentiated by location, with E. insignis being found in the Western Pacific and E. cribrosus being found in the Indian Ocean - it is very strongly suspected that modern testing on the stars would reveal they're the same species:
3 - Either the Noduled Starfish, Fromia nodosa, or the Tile Starfish, Fromia monilis; I'm leaning toward F. monilis due to the marginal plates (the bumps on the sides of each arm) being mostly flat instead of prominently bumpy, but - honestly - the star seems to be too young/small for one of the two criteria distinguishing the two species (the red on the arms), and both criteria are so vague due to variation between specimens of both species as to be borderlining on useless in many instances:
"The collected specimen was F. nodosa ; however, we want to mention that Fromia monilis has a very similar appearance. They can be distinguished by looking at the red-tipped arms - the arms of F. nodosa have red tips only, whilst the arms of F. monilis are coloured red halfway (Fig. 124)."*
"Here is another closely related species, Fromia nodosa which occurs primarily in the Indian Ocean. This species is primarily distinguished based on the larger and more prominent round plates running down the radius of each arm."**
*Source:
tb.plazi.org
**Source:
echinoblog.blogspot.com
2 - Spotted/Mottled/Dalmation Linckia, Linckia multifora; though Leiaster leachi does look quite similar to this, the pattern displayed on OP's star would be super rare for L. leachi, but it's quite common on L. multifora.
3 - Either the Noduled Starfish, Fromia nodosa, or the Tile Starfish, Fromia monilis; I'm leaning toward F. monilis due to the marginal plates (the bumps on the sides of each arm) being mostly flat instead of prominently bumpy, but - honestly - the star seems to be too young/small for one of the two criteria distinguishing the two species (the red on the arms), and both criteria are so vague due to variation between specimens of both species as to be borderlining on useless in many instances:
"The collected specimen was F. nodosa ; however, we want to mention that Fromia monilis has a very similar appearance. They can be distinguished by looking at the red-tipped arms - the arms of F. nodosa have red tips only, whilst the arms of F. monilis are coloured red halfway (Fig. 124)."*
"Here is another closely related species, Fromia nodosa which occurs primarily in the Indian Ocean. This species is primarily distinguished based on the larger and more prominent round plates running down the radius of each arm."**
*Source:
Fromia nodosa A. M. Clark 1967 - Plazi TreatmentBank
The Colorful Challenge of Identifying <i>Fromia monilis</i>, an Indo-Pacific species complex!
From Wikipedia! Identifying animals is tricky business. The other day, I was helping some folks out with an identification of a starf...
echinoblog.blogspot.com
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