Acanthaster

Acanthaster (from Ancient Greek (ákantha), meaning "spine, thorn", and (astḗr), meaning "star") is a bitypic genus of large and venomous starfish placed in the monotypic family, Acanthasteridae. Its two members are known as crown-of-thorns starfish. Acanthaster are native to coral reefs in Indo-Pacific region.

The species in this genus are a contributor to coral reef degradation because they prey on a large amount of live coral at high density.

Species

These species are listed in the World Register of Marine Species:

Some sources add Acanthaster ellisi, <small>(Gray, 1840)</small> in the eastern Pacific, but it is now considered as a subspecies of A. planci.

Haszprunar, Vogler & Wörheide (2017) suggest to split "A. planci" in :

• Acanthaster planci <small>(Linnaeus, 1758)</small> -- Northern Indian Ocean, always purple-blue and red
• Acanthaster mauritiensis <small>de Loriol, 1885</small> -- Souther Indian Ocean
• Acanthaster solaris <small>(Schreber, 1795)</small> -- Pacific Ocean (max. 23 arms)
• Acanthaster benziei <small>Wörheide, Kaltenbacher, Cowan & Haszprunar, 2022</small>—Red Sea (max. 14 arms).

References