Savigny's Brittle Star

Hexamerous species. Colour in life: green background, disc with more or less regular dark and light green markings, arms similarly banded, ventrally white with some green markings on arms (Humphreys, 1981). Arm length to 2 cm, disc diameter to 5 mm. With 2-7 arms. Colour variegated light and dark on disc, banded yellow to blue green on arms. Aboral disc scales distinct, with scattered spinelets. Radial shields large, contiguous ar the distal end. Oral shields large, adoral shields smaller, not meeting proximally. Aboral arm plates elliptical with rounded lateral margins, distal edge convex with a median lobe made prominent by a dark spot on either side. Six short arm spines, rugose and spinulated. Reproduces asexually by splitting down the centre (fissiparity), resulting in individuals with arms of uneven length and irregular disc. Sexual reproduction is know also. Habitat: on rocks, gorgonians, sponges, crevices, algae, turtle-grass beds and other seagrasses. General distribution: tropical Indo-Pacific (Kalk, 1958); circumtropical (Tortonese, 1980); deep range 0-500, tropical, circumglobal (Rowe & Gates, 1995>/a>); tropical Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans (Sastry, 1991). Also distributed in Gilbert Islands, Tuamotus (Clark, 1954); SE Arabia, Persian Gulf, W India, Pakistan, Maldive area Ceylon, Bay of Bengal, East Indies, north Australia, Philippine, China, south Japan, South Pacific Is. and Hawaiian Is. (Clark & Rowe, 1971); Australia (Kalk (1958) and Rowe & Gates (1995)); Lakshadweep (India) in Sastry (1991); India (Andamans and Lakshadweep), tropical Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans (Sastry, 1996). Ecology: benthic, inshore, continental shelf, continental slope (Rowe & Gates, 1995).

Known from seamounts and knolls