''Parvulastra exigua'', or the dwarf cushion starJones, Georgina. ''A field guide to the marine animals of the Cape Peninsula.'' SURG, Cape Town, 2008. is a species 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 ...

in the family

Asterinidae The Asterinidae are a large family of sea stars in the order Valvatida. Description and characteristics These are generally small sea stars, flattened dorsally and bearing very short arms, often giving a pentagonal shape in the body ;example: ...

. It can be found in temperate intertidal marine communities from geographically widespread sites around the southern hemisphere (including

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Description

''Parvulastra exigua'' has pentagonal body with no obvious protruding arms. Dorsal surface is tiled with a small cluster of spines at each tile. Colour is variegated, with bright patterns in orange, brown, green and white.

Distribution

''Parvulastra exigua'' is found from Namibia to Mozambique on

intertidal zone The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various ...

s up to 3 m, on St Helena, St Paul, and southeastern Australia.

Natural history

''Parvulastra exigua'' occurs in the intertidal zone and slightly deeper, and is well camouflaged. It feeds on microscopic algae by everting stomach onto substrate. No planktonic larval stage is present.

References

Asterinidae Echinoderms of the Atlantic Ocean Echinoderms of the Indian Ocean Echinoderms of the Pacific Ocean Starfish described in 1816 Taxa named by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck {{Asteroidea-stub