First record of brittle star from Indian waters

 

Phylum: Echinodermata

Class: Ophiuroidea Gray, 1840

Order: Ophiodermatidae Ljungman, 1867

Family: Asteroschematidae Verrill, 1899

Ophiarachnella septemspinosa (Müller & Troschel, 1842)

Collection: Agatti Island — western reef (10° 51.97’ N, 72° 12.42’ E, 20m), coll. S. Dixit on 06.11.2018 by SCUBA diving.

Voucher No.: CMLRE IO/SS/ECD/00021

Description: Body uniformly dull greyish green with granule covered disc, leaving only small, dark green, circular radial shields bare. Arm spines adpressed, as long as segment, except the ventral-most which is twice as long, distinctly flattened with squared-off tips.

Biological association: None.

Remarks: None.  

Distribution: Saudi Arabia, Kenya, South Africa, Madagascar, Reunion, Mauritius, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Christmas Island, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, Philippines, Japan; intertidal to 50m.

Distribution map:

 

Identified by: Usha V. Parameswaran

Publication: Parameswaran U. V., Mohammed Noushad B., Dixit S., Hashim M., Idrees Babu K. K., Saravanane N. 2020. New records of brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from the Lakshadweep atolls, northern Indian Ocean, with notes on Indophioderma ganapatii Sastry, Marimuthu & Rajan, 2019. Zootaxa, 4809(3):560-570. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4809.3.9.

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