Ice star
| Ice star | ||||||||||||
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Marthasterias glacialis , Linosa (Sicily) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Marthasterias | ||||||||||||
| Jullien , 1878 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Marthasterias glacialis | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
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The spiny or ice star ( Martha glacialis ) is a kind of starfish from the order of pliers star (Forcipulatida), which in the eastern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean can be found. With a wingspan of up to one meter, it is one of the largest starfish in the world.
features
Marthasterias glacialis is usually about 30 cm tall, but it can reach a diameter of up to 80 cm and sometimes up to 1 m. It has a comparatively small central disc and 5 long, slim arms.
Each arm has three longitudinal rows of conical, whitish spines, mostly with pink tips, each surrounded by a wreath of around 400 pedicellarians . Its name refers to the sometimes whitish color, which, however, varies a lot between brownish or greenish-gray with yellow or red, sometimes purple on the arm tips.
Distribution and occurrence
Marthasterias glacialis is distributed in the eastern Atlantic from Iceland , Norway , Ireland and the west coast of Great Britain via the Azores to Cape Verde and can also be found in the Mediterranean and South Africa . It lives on protected muddy as well as rocky surfaces to depths of about 200 m.
Reproduction
So far, comparatively little is known about the reproductive cycle. In July and August, off the coast of Ireland , females from around 9 cm and males from around 2.5 cm collect in shallow water and release eggs and sperm into the sea a few days later. There is an external fertilization and a further development via larval stages .
nutrition
Marthasterias glacialis feeds on mussels , snails , sea urchins , sea squirts , barnacles and decapods .
Like other starfish of the Asteriidae family, it opens shells with the power of its suction feet and everts its stomach for extraintestinal digestion of the prey. With his strength he is able to break the exoskeleton of the stone sea urchin ( Paracentrotus lividus ), one of its main prey animals in the Mediterranean.
Another common prey animal in the Mediterranean is the clam Venus verrucosa , but unlike the great comb star ( Astropecten aranciacus ) , the ice star has difficulty reaching deeper buried shells. Marthasterias glacialis also eats the starfish Asterina gibbosa , the sea urchin Psammechinus miliaris and small decapods of the genera Porcellana ( porcelain crabs ) and Portunus .
In South Africa the mussel Choromytilus meridionalis makes up a large part of its diet, but here it competes strongly with the rock lobster Jasus lalandii and the moon snail Natica tecta .
The whelk ( Buccinum undatum ) shows violent escape reactions to saponins of the ice star and deliberately evades at lower concentrations. The sea urchin Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis also takes flight from Marthasterias glacialis , while Psammechinus miliaris defends itself with its poisonous pedicellarians .
Systematics
Marthasterias glacialis is the only species of the monotypic genus Marthasterias in the family Asteriidae . It was described in 1758 by Carl von Linné as Asterias glacialis and in 1878 by Jules Jullien raised to the status of the genus Marthasterias .
literature
- AJ Penny, CL Griffiths. 1984. Prey selection and the impact of the starfish Marthasterias glacialis (L.) and other predators on the mussel Chloromytilus meridionalis (Krauss). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 75: 19-36.
- Sven Gehrmann: The fauna of the North Sea - lower animals & vertebrates . Epubli, Berlin 2011. pp. 155f.
- HG Hansson (2001): Echinodermata . In: MJ Costello et al. (Ed.): European register of marine species: a check-list of the marine species in Europe and a bibliography of guides to their identification . Collection Patrimoines Naturels 50, pp. 336-351.
- AM Clark, ME Downey: Starfishes of the Atlantic . Chapman & Hall Identification Guides, 3rd Chapman & Hall, London 1992. ISBN 0-412-43280-3
Web links
- Video: Marthasterias glacialis (Asteroidea) - walking . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1965, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / E-970 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Spiny starfish - Marthasterias glacialis . In: Marine Life Information Network . Retrieved November 9, 2015.
- ↑ a b Minchin, D .: Sea-water temperature and spawning behavior in the seastar Marthasterias glacialis . In: Marine Biology . 95, No. 1, 1987, pp. 139-143. doi : 10.1007 / BF00447495 .
- ↑ P. Gianguzza, C. Bonaviri, P. Guidetti: Crushing predation of the spiny star Marthasterias glacialis upon the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus . Marine Biology (2009) 156, pp. 1083-1086. doi : 10.1007 / s00227-009-1153-x
- ↑ Mehmet Güler, Aynur Lök (2015): Foraging behaviors of sea stars, Marthasterias glacialis and Astropecten aranciacus (Asteroidea) and predator-prey interactions with warty venus clam, Venus verrucosa (Bivalvia) . Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 465, April, Pages 99-106. doi : 10.1016 / j.jembe.2014.12.018
- ^ GH Fowler (1891): Hermit crabs and anemones . Journal of the Marine Biological Association Plymouth 2, p. 75.
- ^ AJ Penny, CL Griffiths (1984).
- ↑ Mackie, AM; Lasker, R .; Grant, PT: Avoidance reactions of a mollusc Buccinum undatum to saponin-like surface-active substances in extracts of the starfish Asterias rubens and Marthasterias glacialis . In: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology . 26, No. 2, 1968, pp. 415-428. doi : 10.1016 / 0010-406X (68) 90635-X .
- ^ Jensen, Margit: The response of two sea-urchins to the sea-star Marthasterias glacialis (L.) and other stimuli . In: Ophelia . 3, No. 1, 1966, pp. 209-219. doi : 10.1080 / 00785326.1966.10409643 .