Asteroporpa (Asteroporpa) australiensis H.L. Clark, 1909

Mills, V. Sadie & O'Hara, Timothy D., 2013, Ophiuroids (Echinodermata; Ophiuroidea) of biogenic habitats on the continental shelf of New Zealand, Zootaxa 3613 (5), pp. 401-444 : 410

Asteroporpa (Asteroporpa) australiensis H.L. Clark, 1909

( Fig. 2a )

Astroporpa australiensis Clark, H.L., 1909a: 547 –548, pl. 54(2).

Asteroporpa australiensis .—Clark, H.L., 1915a: 183.—Clark, H.L., 1916: 80–81.—Döderlein, 1930: fig. 6.—Clark, H.L., 1938: 204.—Clark, H.L., 1946: 178.—Dartnall, 1980: 39, 68.—McKnight, 1993a: 186.—McKnight, 2000: 57, fig. 26, pl. 25.

Astroporpa wilsoni Bell, 1917: 7 .—Mortensen, 1924: 106–107, pl. 6 (8–9).—Fell, 1951: 4 [synonymised by Baker, 1980].

Astroporpa australiense .—Koehler, 1930: 13–14, pl. 1(11–13), 2(1) (in part).

Asteroporpa wilsoni .—Fell, 1958: 21.—McKnight, 1968: 519–520.—McKnight, 1975: 61.

Asteroporpa (Asteroporpa) australiensis .— Baker, 1980: 35–36, figs. 8, 31.—Rowe & Gates, 1995: 362.

Material Examined. East Coast North Island. TAN1108/253, NIWA 75615 (3). TAN1108/275, NIWA 77769 (3). Far North. TAN1105/9, NIWA 72989 (19). TAN1105/18, NIWA 73011 (2). TAN1105/27, NIWA 73088 (1).

Diagnosis. Tightly coiled arms run into centre of disc with no defined disc edge. Arms and radial shields banded with white ridges of concentrically arranged tubercles, some with a glassy thorn at tip. Black and white transverse stripes on disc and arms composed of alternating depressed darkened areas of girdle hooks and lighter bands with smaller tubercles. Ventral arm covered with low tubercles. 3–7 arm spines, with several spiny terminal points. Hooklets with secondary tooth on dorsal girdle bands, more noticeable and numerous distally.

Description. See McKnight (2000).

Distribution. North-eastern New Zealand (32–508 m), Norfolk Island and Wanganella Bank (150–344 m), Gascoyne Seamount (143 m), southern Australia (24–465 m).

Remarks. This species was collected with its arms coiled around Primnoidae and Plexauridae gorgonian corals.

Figures

FIGURE 2. a: Asteroporpa (Asteroporpa) australiensis Clark, 1909 on host primnoid coral (NIWA 56911, TAN 0906 / 170), scale bar = 3 mm, and b: Astrobrachion constrictum (Farquhar, 1900) on host black coral (NIWA 56330, TAN 0906 / 146), scale bar = 10 mm.