Luzon sea star

Appearance

"Echinaster luzonicus" is normally a six-armed starfish but is often rather asymmetrical in appearance because of its habit of shedding arms. It is somewhat variable in colouring, ranging from red to dark brown. Both these colour morphs were collected off Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef, and individuals seemed able to change their colour from red to brown and back again, possibly as a response to the amount of ambient light they received.

Distribution

"Echinaster luzonicus" is found in the tropical and sub-tropical western Indo-Pacific region. Its range extending from Madagascar and the east coast of Africa to Northern Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. A common species, it is found on both reef crests and in the intertidal zone.

Habitat

"Echinaster luzonicus" is found in the tropical and sub-tropical western Indo-Pacific region. Its range extending from Madagascar and the east coast of Africa to Northern Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. A common species, it is found on both reef crests and in the intertidal zone."Echinaster luzonicus" feeds on bacterial and algal films that it extracts from the sediment. This species is unique in its genus in that it reproduces asexually by autotomizing its arms; the shed arm then regenerates, growing a new disc and further arms. This species has not been recorded breeding in any other way.

A species of copepod, lives symbiotically on the oral surface of "Echinaster luzonicus"; it is so cryptically coloured as to be almost indistinguishable from its host. Another associate of this starfish is the comb jelly, "Coeloplana astericola", which grows in abundance on its aboral surface.