About Culcita schmideliana (Bruzelius, 1805)
Culcita schmideliana is a roughly pentagonal starfish with a leathery surface and an inflated appearance. When fully adult, it is subglobose in shape, with a very convex aboral (upper) surface and a flat base. Small conical spines are scattered across the aboral surface; these spines reportedly never grow into the papular zones. The oral (under) surface has small granulations, and is covered in large conical tubercles. The largest tubercles, located nearest the ambulacral grooves and the margin, are ovate in cross section. This starfish varies in color, but often has a greyish background with small pink patches that are mostly adjacent to black tubercles. Its madreporite is usually an orangeish color. This starfish often hosts several commensal animal species in its body cavity or on its surface. A carapid fish typically lives inside its stomach, and the polychaete worm Gastrolepidia clavigera sometimes crawls over its surface. A tiny commensal shrimp, Periclimenes soror, also often hides on the starfish's aboral surface, where it is nearly invisible. Culcita schmideliana is native to the tropical western Indo-Pacific. Its range extends from Madagascar, the East African coast and the Red Sea to Aldabra, Chagos, the Philippines, the Seychelles, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Australia. It inhabits lagoon areas and inner reef flats with seagrasses and among algae, at depths down to approximately 92 m (302 ft).
