Echinaster (Othilia) echinophorus (Lamarck 1816)

This species has a small disc and five arms that taper only slightly distally. The arms are subcylindrical being flattened orally. The species is characterised by the presence of thorn-like spines along on the aboral surface. These occur in one or two irregular row (depending on size) on the upper surface, with similar rows of spines along the sides of the arms. This species varies in colour from bright red to orange.

In Panama this species has been collected from Fox Bay, Colon (USNM 38235) and Fort Randolph (USNM E 26417, USNM E 26418), Margarita Island, Limon Bay, Caribbean Sea.

Clark, A.M. (1996). An index of names of recent Asteroidea, part 3. Velatida and Spinulosida, in: Jangoux, M.; Lawrence, J.M. (Ed.) (1996). Echinoderm Studies, 5: pp. 183-250.

Clark, A.M. and M.E. Downey. (1992). Starfishes of the Atlantic. Chapman & Hall Identification Guides, 3. Chapman & Hall: London, UK. ISBN 0-412-43280-3. xxvi, 794 pp.

World Asteroidea Database

LSID urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:178748

Asterias echinophora Lamarck, 1816
Asterias spinosa Retzius, 1805 (Homonym)
Echinaster (Othilia) crassispina Verrill, 1868 (Synonym according to Verrill (1915))
Echinaster (Othilia) spinosus (Retzius, 1805) (Synonym according to Fisher (1919))
Stellonia spinosa Nardo, 1834 (Invalid Synonym)

Echinaster echinophorus (Lamarck)

Asterias spinosa [part ?] Retzius, 1805:18 [non Asterias spinosa Pennant, 1777].

Asterias enchinophora Lamarck, 1816:560.

Othilia spinosa.–Gray, 1840:281; 1866:12.

Echinaster spinus Muller and Troschel [part], 1842:22.–Lutken, 1859:90.–Perrier, 1869:57.

Echinaster (Othilia) crassispina Verrill, 1868:368, pl. 4: fig. 7. Echinaster crassispinus.–Lutken, 1871:283 [61].–Ives, 1890:326.

Echinaster echinophorus.–Perrier, 1875c:364.–Rathbun, 1879; 147.–Ives, 1889:171.–Verrill, 1915:42.–Tommasi, 1970:16, figs. 41–43.

This species has a small disc and five short straight arms, terminating abruptly. The rows of plates are carinal, adradial, superomarginal, inferomarginal, and adambulacral, with no intermediate plates except a few small actinal interradial plates on the ventral surface of the disc. Only a few plates bear spines, but those which do are tumid, almost mammiliform, and the spines are huge, movable, and acute. Usually, the carinal and superomarginal plates lack spines.

All plates without spines bear a large round patch of coarse glassy tubercles. Papular areas between the plates are large and papulae numerous. A large tissue-covered area at the center of the disc dorsum contains one or two small “floating” plates and a small, off-center anus raised in a minute epiproctal cone. The small madreporite is raised, round, and the gyri are concealed by small spinules. The ventral surface of the disc is without spines, and the papulae on the ventral surface are small, single, and scattered. The adambulacral plates bear a single small acute spine within the furrow and a single larger subacute spine on the margin. The small mouth plates bear a single epioral spine common to each pair, and on the margin of each plate are two similar, widely separated spines; these spines are small and blunt.

This is mainly a Brazilian species, and has not previously been reported north of Yucatan. It is confined to shallow water.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.—Oregon Station 5456 (1) [R=37 mm, r=9 mm, Rr=1:4].