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Echinoderms from Southern New Zealand

Sclerasterias mollis (Hutton, 1872)

Sclerasterias mollis (Hutton, 1872)

  • Station NGH 3, one small individual.
  • Otago Harbour. November, 1951; coll. E. Batham; one specimen.
  • Ten miles south of Cape Campbell, mud bottom, 40 to 50 fathoms, March. 1947; coll. F. Abernethy; 10 specimens.

The species is abundant at Cape Campbell, and the hundred specimens taken there comprise only a representative sample of what came up in the trawl of the Phyllis. Of the hundred. 99 were five-armed, one alone six-armed. Two only showed regenerating arms, one of them in the so-called "sea-comet" condition. The colour in life is a bright brick-red, marked by longitudinal yellowish bands which correspond in position to the longitudinal rows of spines. The largest specimen has R, 120 mm.; r, 18 mm. The majority have arms exceeding 10 mm. in length. This is the only large Asterias-like starfish of New Zealand to have five arms. As the specific name indicates, it is very fragile, owing to weak regions of the body-wall where the arms enter the small disc.