Astrosarkus Mah 2003

Mah, Christopher L., 2023, A new species of Astrosarkus from Western Australia including new Mesophotic occurrences of Indian Ocean Oreasteridae (Valvatida, Asteroidea), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 82, pp. 143-165 : 144

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).