New record of brittle star from south eastern Arabian Sea

Phylum: Echinodermata

Class: Ophiuroidea Gray, 1840

Order: Ophiurida Müller & Troschel, 1840

Family: Amphiuridae Ljungman, 1867

Amphiura (Fellaria) heptacantha (Mortensen, 1940)         

Collection: SE Arabian Sea shelf, off Cape Comorin, 31 m. Cape Comorin – 8° 2.207′ N, 77° 29.956′ E, 31 m, 16.5.2010 (FORVSS 275, St. 16). Smith-McIntyre grab.

Voucher No.: CMLRE IO/SS/ECD/00093 (FORV Referral Centre, CMLRE, Kochi)

Description: Disc diameter 2 mm; scales present only around the radial shields, which are long and bar-like, with a small gap between them, rest of the disc naked, highly contorted; arms very long, all broken. Distal oral papillae not present on all jaws (possibly lost), scale-like with a rounded distal edge. Tentacle scales absent. Arm spines number 7, all flattened, and most with a rugose edge. Colour white.

Biological association: None.

Remarks:

Distribution: SE Africa (Mozambique), SE Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, W Australia

Distribution map:

Identified by: Parameswaran, Usha V.

Publication: Parameswaran U. V., V. N. Sanjeevan, Abdul Jaleel K. U., Vinu Jacob, Aiswarya Gopal, Anil Kumar V., M. Sudhakar (2017) An updated checklist of echinoderms of the South Eastern Arabian Sea, Marine Biodiversity. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-017-0732-1.