(Parelius, 1768)

Rigid Cushion Star

Description
Body with a large disc and 5 small, narrow and tapering arms; R/r: 2; up to 400 mm in diameter, but usually smaller. Coloured red.

Dorsal side
The plates on the upper surface are of various sizes. The larger plates bear a thick spine or a pedicellaria in the middle and a series of graines around the edge. The smaller plates are disposed irregularly around the larger ones. The marginal plates each bear 1-3 thick spines in the middle and a series of grains along the edges.

Oral side
The oral interradial area is very large, with numerous large pedicellariae (p), each surrounded by a circle of grains (g). Along the ambulacral furrow the pedicellariae are arranged in a fairly regular longitudinal series, each pedicellariae standing obliquely to the furrow (H. phrygiana pedicellaria).

Habitat
This species is found on various substrata, from 20 m down to depths of about 800 m.

Distribution
In the North Sea it is found from the Shetland Islands down to Northumberland on the British east coast. Elsewhere it is northerly distributed from Scotland to Greenland, Iceland and Finmark.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Echinodermata
Class Asteroidea
Order Phanerozonia
Family Goniasteridae
Genus Hippasteria
Species phrygiana

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Hippasteria phrygiana (Parelius, 1768)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Asterias phrygianus Parelius, 1768
Asterias equestris de Lamarck, 1816, non Retzius, 1805
Hippasteria johnstoni Gray, in Johnston, 1836
Hippasteria europaea Gray, 1840
Hippasteria plana Gray, 1840
Goniaster abbensis Gray, 1843
Goniaster equestris Forbes, 1852
Astrogonium aculeatum Barrett, 1857
Hippasteria (Nehippasteria) insignis dons, 1938

Vernacular name
Rigid Cushion Star (English)

Mortensen, T.H., 1927. Handbook of the Echinoderms of the British Isles. Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press: 471 pp.

Moyse, J. & P.A. Tyler, 1990. Echinodermata. In: P.J. Hayward & J.S. Ryland (eds): The Marine Fauna of the British Isles and North- West Europe, Volume 2, Molluscs to Chordates. Clarendon Press, Oxford: 839-871.

Picton, B.E., 1993. A field guide to the shallow-water Echinoderms of the British Isles. Immel Publishing: 96 pp.

No distribution map was available at OBIS the last time we checked. Retry now.

You can continue searching for Hippasteria phrygiana on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

Google | Yahoo | MSN | Wikipedia