Nidorellia armata

Chocolate Starfish ( Nidorellia armata )

The Chocolate Starfish ( Nidorellia armata ) is a large, 23 inches in diameter -reach starfish. He lives in the eastern Pacific from California to Peru and the Galapagos Islands.

Features

The arms of the chocolate starfish are short, have a wide base and run out of pointed. Arms and pillowed inflated bodies acting together form a pentagon with indented sides. They are cream-colored, eye patches than with a chocolate brown markings running as a strip from the middle of the body to the arm tips and along the arm base and the body between the arms. On the body top are short and strong spines. The Chocolate Starfish reaches a body diameter of 23 centimeters.

Way of life

Chocolate Starfish live on rocky, overgrown with algae and seagrass underground at depths of 5 to 70 meters. They feed on bottom-dwelling invertebrates that they digest with her bulged stomach and algae. Chocolate starfish are hosts of commensal Partnergarnele Periclimenes soror.