red spot sea star

Description
Colour in life: variable, from harlequin deep purple, red orange and pink with orange yellow tips to arms, through red with orange arm tips and white furrow spines, to deep brown with large irregular brown marking and pale brown adoral surface (Humphreys, 1981). Also distributed in Philippine and South Pacific Is. (Clark & Rowe, 1971); Australia (Rowe & Gates, 1995).

Ecology
benthic, inshore, continental shelf. General distribution: tropical, discontinuous (east Indian Ocean, Philipphines, Lower California, Panama), depth range 10-25 m. (Rowe & Gates, 1995).

Synonymised taxa
Leiaster analogus (Fisher, 1913)
Leiaster leachi (Tortonese, 1953)