Asterias punctata, Lamarck, 1816

Jangoux, Michel, 2021, The asteroid species of Lamarck (Echinodermata: Asteroidea), Zoosystema 43 (13), pp. 213-252 : 239-240

punctata Lamarck, 1816 , Asterias

( Fig. 31 )

Asterias punctata Lamarck, 1816: 553 .

Petricia punctata – Clark 1993: 321.

CURRENT STATUS. — Asterias punctata is newly newly synonymized here with Asteropsis carinifera ( Lamarck, 1816) .

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — South Seas • MNHN-IE-2014-31; 2 syntypes of Asterias carinifera ; Baudin expedition (1800-1804); Péron and Lesueur leg. • MHNH; Lesueur drawings collection; ref. 74043; Baudin expedition .

REMARKS

There is a strange confusion between Lamarck’s Asterias punctata and Lamarck’s Asterias vernicina , the two species being erroneously considered synonymous. This confusion presumably arose from Perrier’s stay in the British Museum in the early 1870s. After having compared London and Paris asteroid specimens, he proposed, with reason, to synonymyse Lamarck’s Asterias vernicina and Gray’s Petricia punctata , which he confirmed in his 1875 revision, combining the two species under the name Petricia vernicina . Of course, this did not imply that Lamarck’s Asterias punctata was also a synonym of Lamarck’s Asterias vernicina , a synonymy which was, however, tacitly accepted by subsequent authors. The situation became still more confused as neither Müller &Troschel (1842) nor Perrier (1875) discussed Lamarck’s Asterias punctata . They found no trace of A. punctata individuals in the MNHN which would mean the specimens have been lost for quite a long time.

Lamarck’s Latin diagnosis of Asterias punctata is as follows: “ pentagona, inermis, utrinque tessellata ; tesselis dorsi sinuatoangulatis, punctatis; margine articulato [pentagonal, spineless [and] checkered on both sides; upper side perforate with rounded tiles; articulated arm”. Nota: “Tiles” refer to abactinal plates and ‘perforate’ to papulae.] Both this diagnosis and the MNHN pictures of Asteropsis carinifera syntypes are clearly reminiscent of the shape of juveniles Asteropsis carinifera already illustrated by Loriol (1885: 67, pl 20 figs 7-10). One may therefore conclude that A. punctata and A. carinifera are synonyms, the former corresponding to the juvenile form of the species.

Figures

FIG. 31. — Asterias punctata Lamarck, 1816: A, B, abactinal and actinal surfaces; C, E, abactinal and actinal sides of the arm tip; D, furrow and subambulacral spines; F, syntypes of the species MNHN-IE-2014-31 (A-E: MHNH, Lesueur collection 74043, details, courtesy of MHNH).