Common Comet Star

About this species

Linckia guildingi, also called the common comet star, Guilding's sea star or the green Linckia, is a species of sea star reported from the shallow waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Linckia guildingi”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 97 records
February: 74 records
March: 85 records
April: 81 records
May: 84 records
June: 57 records
July: 91 records
August: 77 records
September: 205 records
October: 145 records
November: 68 records
December: 79 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 2–47 m · Deepest record: 448.5 m

0–10 m: 173 records
10–20 m: 160 records
20–30 m: 8 records
30–40 m: 3 records
40–50 m: 5 records
50–60 m: 1 records
60–70 m: 7 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 1 records
90–100 m: 3 records
100–110 m: 6 records
110+ m: 20 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–30 °C

16–18 °C: 2 records
18–20 °C: 0 records
20–22 °C: 21 records
22–24 °C: 55 records
24–26 °C: 135 records
26–28 °C: 44 records
28–30 °C: 122 records

Photos

(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) datadan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Donald Davesne, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Sam Westbrook, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Michael Bakker Paiva, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Andrea Caballero, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Addshore, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Common Comet Star, Green Linckia, Guilding's Sea Star

Names in 4 more languages

Spanish: Guinda
French: Comète de mer, Étoile-comète de Floride, Étoile de mer de Guilding, Étoile de mer jaune
Japanese: ムラサキヒトデ
Simplified Chinese: 蓋丁指海星

Other scientific names: Linckia diplax, Linckia ehrenbergii, Linckia nicobarica, Linckia ornithopus, Linckia pacifica, Ophidiaster diplax, Ophidiaster ehrenbergi, Ophidiaster flaccidus, Ophidiaster irregularis, Ophidiaster ornithopus, Ophidiaster pacifica, Scytaster stella

Similar species

Azure sea star
Linckia laevigata
Multipore Sea Star
Linckia multifora
Japanese orange sea star
Certonardoa semiregularis
Gomophia egyptiaca
Gomophia watsoni
Leiaster coriaceus

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
965 open-data records from 1840 to 2023.
Species data updated November 4, 2026.