A newly recorded sea star of genus Henricia (Asteroidea: Spinulosida: Echinasteridae) from the East Sea, Korea

Abstract

An asteroid specimen was collected by using a fishing net from the waters near Daejin harbor, in the East Sea of Korea on 3 Mar 2017. Based on morphological characteristics, the specimen was identified as Aleutihenricia beringiana (Djakonov, 1950), belonging to the family Echinasteridae, of the order Spinulosida. The genus Aleutihenricia was first described by Clark and Jewett, 2010. This species can be distinguished from other Aleutihenricia species by having a roundish protruding shape of abactinal and actinal plates, the number of abactinal spines bearing three to eight spinelets, and the number of adambulacral spines comprising six to eight spinelets. This is the first report of the genus Aleutihenricia and A. beringiana in Korea.