Tuatara: Volume 12, Issue 3, November 1964
Intraspecific Variation in a New Zealand Sea-star
Intraspecific Variation in a New Zealand Sea-star
The mantis shrimp Squilla armata is fairly common in New Zealand and southern Australia, on mud bottoms from the intertidal region down to 100 fathoms. This specimen, an adult male from Cook Strait, approaches he maximum size of about six inches long. (Photo: M. D. King.)
The sea-star Pentagonaster pulchellus is common in shallow water from Napier southwards. This photograph shows some of the unusual 4-armed nd 6-armed variants collected in recent years in Foveaux Strait by Thor Nielsen. The species varies in other ways also, and is at present under study as an example of extreme variability in a single interbreeding population. H. B. Fell. (Photo: M. D. King.)