Sea StarFromia milleporella

Category
  • Fringing Reef
Tags
  • Invertebrate
  • Sea Star
  • Thousand Pore Sea Star
  • Lagoon coral patches

Description

Fromia milleporella has an overall red or brown colour with black pores. It is commonly known as the Red Sea Star, Red Starfish, Black Spotted Starfish, Porous Sea Star amongst other names. The body is flat, slightly granular and uniformly coloured. The dorsal surface possesses the small black dots, irregularly arranged all over. There are 5 arms, triangular in shape. This species can reach about 15cm in length.

  • Test

Habitat and ecology

This species of sea star is distributed across the Indo-West Pacific, from Madagascar to the Red Sea, including Sri Lanka, Bay of Bengal, Northern Australia, East Indies Philippines, China, South Japan and South Pacific. Recorded depth range is 0 to 73m[1]. It can be found on reef flats and reefs that are rich in calcareous algae. It is hidden in caves and crevices during the day and is rather a nocturnal feeder. Diet consists of algal film, microorganisms, young corals, bivalves and worms. Fromia milleporella exhibits both sexual and asexual reproduction. Embryos undergo a planktonic phase before settling on the ocean floor where they metamorphose into juvenile sea stars[2].

 

Conservation and management

The conservation status of this species has not been evaluated yet.

 


[1] ‘Thousand-Pores Sea Star (Fromia Milleporella)’.

[2] ‘Fromia Milleporella’.

Did you know?

The Sea Star extends its stomach out of its mouth onto its prey and releases its gastric juices, digestion is partly external[1].

 


[1] ‘Fromia Milleporella | DORIS’.

References

Abdel-Razek, F. A. et al, and Abdel-Razek, F.A. et al. ‘Reproductive Biology of the Tropical Sea Cucumber Holothuria Atra (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) in the Red Sea Coast of Egypt’. Egyptian Journal of Aquatic Research 31, no. 2 (2005): 383–402.

Conand, C., R. Gamboa, and S. Purcell. ‘The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species’. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 2013. https://www.iucnredlist.org/en.

Dhinakaran, Devaraj Isaac, and Aaron Premnath Lipton. ‘Bioactive Compounds from Holothuria Atra of Indian Ocean’. SpringerPlus 3 (14 November 2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-3-673.

‘Echinometra Mathaei | Jake Horton’. Accessed 23 November 2018. https://www.gbri.org.au/Classes/2012/Echinometramathaei%7CJakeHorton.aspx?PageContentID=3101.

‘Echinometra Mathaei, Rock-Boring Urchin’. Accessed 23 November 2018. https://www.sealifebase.ca/summary/Echinometra-mathaei.html.

‘Fromia Milleporella’. Accessed 23 November 2018. https://www.sealifebase.ca/summary/Fromia-milleporella.html.

‘Fromia Milleporella | DORIS’. Accessed 23 November 2018. http://doris.ffessm.fr/Especes/Fromia-milleporella-Etoile-rouge-poreuse-2249.

‘Giant Clam (Tridacna Spp.) | NOAA Fisheries’. Accessed 14 November 2018. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/giant-clam-tridacna-spp.

‘Ion-Regulatory and Developmental Physiology of Giant Clams (Genus Tridacna) and Their Conservation Status on the Island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia.’ Accessed 14 November 2018. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/74f4p4jg.

Murphy, Richard C. Coral Reefs: Cities Under The Sea. Princeton, New Jersey: The Darwin Press, 2002.

Paulay, Gustav, and Gustav Paulay. Holothuria (Halodeima) Atra Jaeger, 1833. World Register of Marine Species, 2010. http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=148748.

The Paleobiology Database. Paleodb.org, n.d. http://paleodb.org.

‘Thousand-Pores Sea Star (Fromia Milleporella)’. iNaturalist.org. Accessed 23 November 2018. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/129554-Fromia-milleporella.