Culcita (echinoderm)
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''Culcita'' is a genus of
sea star Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...
s. They are found in tropical waters. Some are kept in home aquariums.


Description and characteristics

These are very particular stars, plump and pillow-shaped, more or less pentagonal. Their five arms have waned to only obtuse angles (and sometimes rounded off or truncated). They can measure up to 30 cm in diameter, and are typical of Indo-Pacific coral reefs, where they feed on benthic invertebrates and coral. Two species ''
Culcita novaeguineae ''Culcita novaeguineae'' (common name, cushion star) is a species of starfish. It has short arms and an inflated appearance and resembles a pentagonal pincushion. It is variable in colour and can be found in tropical warm waters in the Indo-Pacif ...
'' and '' Culcita schmideliana'' are extremely similar and almost impossible to differentiate by sight, except that ''C. schmideliana'' has larger tubercles, that are normally absent from papular areas (though both species can also be naked). They are thus distinguished mostly by their area of distribution: ''C. schmideliana'' lives in the Indian Ocean (from Africa to the Maldives), and ''C. novaeguineae'' in Oceania and the Pacific Ocean. The third species, ''C. coriacea'', lives in the Red Sea and around Arabia, and is slightly different in appearance. This genus is not to be confused with similar cushion-shaped species such as '' Halityle regularis''. The juveniles are flat and pentagonal, and can look like "biscuit sea stars" from the family
Goniasteridae Goniasteridae (the biscuit stars) constitute the largest family of sea stars, included in the order Valvatida. They are mostly deep-dwelling species, but the family also include several colorful shallow tropical species. Description Goniast ...
(such as '' Peltaster spp.'').


List of species

The genus contains three species: *'' Culcita coriacea'' Müller & Troschel, 1842 -- Red Sea and Arabic region *''
Culcita novaeguineae ''Culcita novaeguineae'' (common name, cushion star) is a species of starfish. It has short arms and an inflated appearance and resembles a pentagonal pincushion. It is variable in colour and can be found in tropical warm waters in the Indo-Pacif ...
'' Müller & Troschel, 1842 -- Indonesian region and Pacific Ocean *'' Culcita schmideliana'' (Retzius, 1805) -- Indian Ocean Image:Culcita coriacea.jpg, '' Culcita coriacea'' (
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) Image:Culcita schmideliana.jpg, '' Culcita schmideliana'' (
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) Image:CulcitanovguineaeJI1.jpg, ''
Culcita novaeguineae ''Culcita novaeguineae'' (common name, cushion star) is a species of starfish. It has short arms and an inflated appearance and resembles a pentagonal pincushion. It is variable in colour and can be found in tropical warm waters in the Indo-Pacif ...
'' (
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
) Image:Culcita schmideliana juvenile.JPG, Juveniles are flat and pentagonal Image:Culcita novaeguineae, reverso.jpeg, Oral face (the mouth is at the center)


References


External links

*
Culcita info
' *

' Oreasteridae Asteroidea genera {{Asteroidea-stub