Nepanthia belcheri

Other invertebrates
IUCN: Not evaluated

Usual depth0–200 m
Water temperature20–29 °C
Best monthsFebruary, August, and October
How commonRare

About this species

Nepanthia belcheri is a species of starfish in the family Asterinidae. It is found in shallow water in Southeast Asia and northeastern Australia. It is an unusual species in that it can reproduce sexually or can split in two by fission to form two new individuals. As a result, it has varying numbers of arms, and Hubert Lyman Clark, writing in 1938, stated, "It is a literal truth that no two of the 56 specimens at hand, nearly all from Lord Howe Island, are exactly alike in number, size and form of arms".

Text from the Wikipedia article “Nepanthia belcheri”, 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: 6 records
February: 9 records
March: 3 records
April: 4 records
May: 7 records
June: 6 records
July: 4 records
August: 8 records
September: 2 records
October: 9 records
November: 1 records
December: 6 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 0–200 m · Deepest record: 225 m

0–10 m: 2 records
10–20 m: 0 records
20–30 m: 0 records
30–40 m: 0 records
40–50 m: 1 records
50–60 m: 1 records
60–70 m: 3 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 1 records
110+ m: 3 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 20–29 °C

20–22 °C: 26 records
22–24 °C: 18 records
24–26 °C: 22 records
26–28 °C: 36 records
28–30 °C: 9 records

Names and classification

Names in 2 more languages

Japanese: コサメハダヒトデ
Simplified Chinese: 刺腕蠍海燕

Other scientific names: Asterina (Nepanthia) belcheri, Asterina (Nepanthia) brevis, Asterina brevis, Echinaster heteractis, Henricia heteractis, Henricides heteractis, Nepanthia brevis, Nepanthia joubini, Nepanthia magnispina, Nepanthia polyplax, Nepanthia suffarcinata, Nepanthia variabilis

Similar species

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).
249 open-data records from 1885 to 2023.

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