WoRMS taxon details
Ophiocoma erinaceus Müller & Troschel, 1842
212371 (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:212371)
accepted
Species
Ophiocoma similanensis Bussarawit & Rowe, 1985 · unaccepted (junior synonym)
Ophiocoma tartarea Lyman, 1861 · unaccepted
marine, brackish, fresh, terrestrial
Müller, J. and Troschel, F. H. (1842). System der Asteriden.1. Asteriae. 2. Ophiuridae. <em>Vieweg: Braunschweig.</em> xxx+134 pp. 12 pls., available online at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/44159 [details] 
Description Colour in life: all black, some with white trim to ventral arm plates, most with bright orange podia (Humphreys, 1981)....
Description Colour in life: all black, some with white trim to ventral arm plates, most with bright orange podia (Humphreys, 1981). Very common. Description: arm length to 12 cm, disc diameter to 20 mm. Distinctive uniformly black body with long, thick spines on arms, shorter towards the tips. Orange tube-feet. Disc scales covered by rounded granules, extending into a V-shaped interradial area on the ventral side of the disc. Aboral arm plates broader than long, narrower on one side. Arm spines alternating three and four for greater part of the arm length.
Habitat: sand and rubble in shallow areas and shallow sublittoral among coral; coral reef, beacon reef (Balinsky, 1957).
Also distributed in Gilbert Islands, Tuamotus, Saipan (Clark, 1954); SE Arabia, Maldive area, Ceylon, Bay of Bengal, East Indies, north Australia, Philippie, China, south Japan, South Pacific Is. and Hawaiian Is. (Clark & Rowe, 1971); Australia (Kalk (1958) and Rowe & Gates (1995)); Lakshadweep (India) in Sastry (1991).
General distribution: from the Red Sea to Hawaii and SE Polynesia (Tortonese, 1980); WIO, Red Sea to W Pacific (Richmond, 1998); tropical, Indo-Pacific Ocean, depth range 0-27 m. (Kalk (1958) and Rowe & Gates (1995)); East coast of Africa to Hawaiian Islands in Sastry (1991).
Ecology: benthic, inshore (Rowe & Gates, 1995). [details]
Habitat: sand and rubble in shallow areas and shallow sublittoral among coral; coral reef, beacon reef (Balinsky, 1957).
Also distributed in Gilbert Islands, Tuamotus, Saipan (Clark, 1954); SE Arabia, Maldive area, Ceylon, Bay of Bengal, East Indies, north Australia, Philippie, China, south Japan, South Pacific Is. and Hawaiian Is. (Clark & Rowe, 1971); Australia (Kalk (1958) and Rowe & Gates (1995)); Lakshadweep (India) in Sastry (1991).
General distribution: from the Red Sea to Hawaii and SE Polynesia (Tortonese, 1980); WIO, Red Sea to W Pacific (Richmond, 1998); tropical, Indo-Pacific Ocean, depth range 0-27 m. (Kalk (1958) and Rowe & Gates (1995)); East coast of Africa to Hawaiian Islands in Sastry (1991).
Ecology: benthic, inshore (Rowe & Gates, 1995). [details]
Stöhr, S.; O’Hara, T.; Thuy, B. (Eds) (2025). World Ophiuroidea Database. Ophiocoma erinaceus Müller & Troschel, 1842. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=212371 on 2025-04-04
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Nomenclature
original description
Müller, J. and Troschel, F. H. (1842). System der Asteriden.1. Asteriae. 2. Ophiuridae. <em>Vieweg: Braunschweig.</em> xxx+134 pp. 12 pls., available online at http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/44159 [details]
original description (of Ophiocoma similanensis Bussarawit & Rowe, 1985) Bussarawit, S.; Rowe, F. W. E. (1985). A new species in the Ophiocomid genus Ophiocoma (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from the west coast of Thailand, Andaman Sea. <em>Phuket mar. Biol. Center Res. Bull.</em> 35, 1-6. [details]
original description (of Ophiocoma tartarea Lyman, 1861) Lyman, T. (1861). Descriptions of new Ophiuridae. <em>Proc. Boston Soc. nat. Hist.</em> 8: 75-86., available online at https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9492489 [details]
basis of record Clark, A. M.; Rowe, F. W. E. (1971). Monograph of shallow-water indo-west Pacific Echinoderms. <em>Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History).</em> London. x + 238 p. + 30 pls., available online at http://www.abctaxa.be/downloads/additional-information-volume-1/works-famous-holothuroid-workers/fwe-rowe/MonographIndoWestPacific.pdf [details]
original description (of Ophiocoma similanensis Bussarawit & Rowe, 1985) Bussarawit, S.; Rowe, F. W. E. (1985). A new species in the Ophiocomid genus Ophiocoma (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from the west coast of Thailand, Andaman Sea. <em>Phuket mar. Biol. Center Res. Bull.</em> 35, 1-6. [details]
original description (of Ophiocoma tartarea Lyman, 1861) Lyman, T. (1861). Descriptions of new Ophiuridae. <em>Proc. Boston Soc. nat. Hist.</em> 8: 75-86., available online at https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9492489 [details]
basis of record Clark, A. M.; Rowe, F. W. E. (1971). Monograph of shallow-water indo-west Pacific Echinoderms. <em>Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History).</em> London. x + 238 p. + 30 pls., available online at http://www.abctaxa.be/downloads/additional-information-volume-1/works-famous-holothuroid-workers/fwe-rowe/MonographIndoWestPacific.pdf [details]
Taxonomy
status source
Benavides-Serrato, M.; O'Hara, T. D. (2008). A new species in the Ophiocoma erinaceus complex from the South-west Pacific Ocean (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea: Ophiocomidae). <em>Memoirs of Museum Victoria.</em> 65, 51-56. [details]
Other
additional source
Liu, J.Y. [Ruiyu] (ed.). (2008). Checklist of marine biota of China seas. <em>China Science Press.</em> 1267 pp. (look up in IMIS) [details] Available for editors 
[request]
additional source Stöhr, S. (2011). New records and new species of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. <em>Zootaxa.</em> 3089: 1-50., available online at http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2011/f/zt03089p050.pdf [details]
[request]additional source Stöhr, S. (2011). New records and new species of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. <em>Zootaxa.</em> 3089: 1-50., available online at http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2011/f/zt03089p050.pdf [details]
Present Present in aphia/obis/gbif/idigbio Inaccurate Introduced: alien Containing type locality
Unreviewed
Description Colour in life: all black, some with white trim to ventral arm plates, most with bright orange podia (Humphreys, 1981). Very common. Description: arm length to 12 cm, disc diameter to 20 mm. Distinctive uniformly black body with long, thick spines on arms, shorter towards the tips. Orange tube-feet. Disc scales covered by rounded granules, extending into a V-shaped interradial area on the ventral side of the disc. Aboral arm plates broader than long, narrower on one side. Arm spines alternating three and four for greater part of the arm length.Habitat: sand and rubble in shallow areas and shallow sublittoral among coral; coral reef, beacon reef (Balinsky, 1957).
Also distributed in Gilbert Islands, Tuamotus, Saipan (Clark, 1954); SE Arabia, Maldive area, Ceylon, Bay of Bengal, East Indies, north Australia, Philippie, China, south Japan, South Pacific Is. and Hawaiian Is. (Clark & Rowe, 1971); Australia (Kalk (1958) and Rowe & Gates (1995)); Lakshadweep (India) in Sastry (1991).
General distribution: from the Red Sea to Hawaii and SE Polynesia (Tortonese, 1980); WIO, Red Sea to W Pacific (Richmond, 1998); tropical, Indo-Pacific Ocean, depth range 0-27 m. (Kalk (1958) and Rowe & Gates (1995)); East coast of Africa to Hawaiian Islands in Sastry (1991).
Ecology: benthic, inshore (Rowe & Gates, 1995). [details]
Remark Treated as a synonym of O. scolopendrina (Lamarck) in Ludwig (1899) and by von Martens (1870) and by Marktanner-Turneretscher (1867) treated as a synonym of O. schoenleinii. Also recorded from 'Coin Peros' by Bell (1909) - locality can't be traced.
Type locality: 'Red Sea and Indian Ocean'. Syntypes (probable) Museum für Naturkunde an der Universität Humbolt zu Berlin, Berlin (Germany) (Rowe & Gates, 1995). [details]
| Language | Name | |
|---|---|---|
| Japanese | クロクモヒトデ | [details] |
To Barcode of Life (81 barcodes)
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (1 publication) (from synonym Ophiocoma similanensis Bussarawit & Rowe, 1985)
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (70 publications)
To Biological Information System for Marine Life (BISMaL)
To European Nucleotide Archive, ENA (Ophiocoma erinaceus)
To GenBank (64 nucleotides; 63 proteins)
To USNM Invertebrate Zoology Echinodermata Collection (184 records)
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (1 publication) (from synonym Ophiocoma similanensis Bussarawit & Rowe, 1985)
To Biodiversity Heritage Library (70 publications)
To Biological Information System for Marine Life (BISMaL)
To European Nucleotide Archive, ENA (Ophiocoma erinaceus)
To GenBank (64 nucleotides; 63 proteins)
To USNM Invertebrate Zoology Echinodermata Collection (184 records)
