The blue bat star is a small, plump sea star of Northeast Asian coasts, colored blue with bright orange-red blotches. It doesn't live in US waters; a close relative there is the bat star of the Pacific Coast. Because it's easy to collect and has large, clear eggs, it's a classic lab animal for studying how embryos develop.
Appearance
- Appearance
- A small pentagonal center with short, broad arms, usually five but sometimes four or six; about 2.4 in (6 cm) from center to arm tip. The upper side is blue with irregular red to orange patches, and the underside is orange.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Rocky shallows
- Stony and gravelly seafloor
- Range
- Native to the Sea of Japan, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea, and along Russia's coast north to southern Sakhalin. It is not found in the US.
- Preferred conditions
- Shallow water on stony bottoms down to about 130 ft (40 m); it prefers coarse sediment over fine mud.
Behavior
- Diet
- Algae, sea grasses, bits of dead material, and small invertebrates. Like many sea stars, it pushes its stomach out over food and digests it outside its body.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Males and females are separate. In Russia's Peter the Great Gulf it spawns twice a year, in spring and fall, and a female can release about 500,000 eggs a year. Larvae drift in the plankton before settling as tiny sea stars.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Formerly called Asterina pectinifera.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
Culture and stories
- Culture and stories
- Embryo cells pulled apart in the lab can reassemble into a working larva.
More species to explore
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