Colours
Distinguishing features
Up to 40 arms (usually 20-30); a good ring of cirri with up to 26 segments on a stout, discoidal centrodorsal; often green with yellow pinnule tips but other colour combinations exist.
The green form is found most frequently on the reef flat, concealed during the day. Another common colour form of a Comatella species at Lizard Island is bright irridescent blue with dark midlines on the arms when viewed underwater (blackish in air). This form is more common on reef slopes and it needs to be determined which of the two Comatella species it is.
The following characters are only useful when a specimen can be examined with a microscope: all division series of two ossicles; IIIBr series usually present only on the external side of each IIBr series; first syzygy on free arm almost always at 1+2, rarely 3+4; teeth of combed pinnules confluent with interior side of the segment.
Size
- Size data has not been obtained.
Depth range
- Depth range data is not yet available.
Synonyms
Distribution
©Atlas of Living Australia: Australian distribution
Web resources
References
References that assist with identification
- Clark, A.M. and F.W.E. Rowe (1971). Monograph of shallow-water Indo-west Pacific echinoderms British Museum (Natural History), London.
Other references
- Rouse, G.W., L.S. Jermiin, N.G Wilson, I. Eeckhaut, D. Lanterbecq, T. Oji, C.M. Young, T. Browning, P. Cisternas, L.E. Helgen, M. Stuckey and C.G. Messing (2013). Fixed, free, and fixed: The fickle phylogeny of extant Crinoidea (Echinodermata) and their Permian - Triassic origin. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 66: 161-181. LIRS catalog number 1601.