Big pillow star
| Big pillow star | ||||||||||||
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Culcita novaeguineae , semi adult |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Culcita novaeguineae | ||||||||||||
| Müller & Troschel , 1842 |
The large pillow star ( Culcita novaeguineae ), also called the Eastern pillow starfish or New Guinea pillow star , is a large starfish that can reach 30 centimeters in diameter . It lives in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Pacific , from the Bay of Bengal to Hawaii .
features
In the case of the large pillow star, the extremely short arms and the body are fused together to form a pentagon, in the case of full-grown specimens the body is rounded and appears inflated like a pillow. Young animals are even more star-shaped and the arms are still clearly visible. The animals are very variable in color and can be brown, green, red, black or gray. Pore-rich zones appear as spots on the upper side. Large pillow stars can easily be confused with the spiked pillow star ( Culcita schmideliana ), the skin of which is slightly more spiky and which has a distribution area further west from East Africa to Western Australia .
Way of life
Large pillow stars live on coral reefs in shallow water at a depth of 5 to 30 meters. They feed on hard coral polyps, preferably of the genera Acropora and Pocillopora , but also on detritus , various microorganisms and other sessile invertebrates . They are probably segregated and asexual reproduction has not yet been observed. Large pillow stars are sometimes hosts of the commensal partner shrimp Periclimenes soror .
literature
- Svein A. Fossa / Alf Jacob Nilsen: Coral reef aquarium Volume 6 , Schmettkamp Verlag, 1998, ISBN 3-928819-18-6
- Hans A. Baensch / Robert A. Patzner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 3, Mergus-Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-103-8
- Helmut Schuhmacher / Johannes Hinterkircher: Lower marine animals . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft 1996, ISBN 3-405-14854-5
