A large heavy sea star, orange to brown with a raised net of blunt tubercles, on seagrass and sand. Slow-growing and easily collected, so it is scarce where it is not protected.
To about 50 cm across, the largest sea star in its range. A thick inflated disc with five short blunt arms, though four to seven occur, and blunt spines linked by a coarse network of ridges. Adults are red, orange, yellow or brown; juveniles are mottled greenish-brown and live in seagrass.
Nothing in the region is close.
To thirty-seven metres on sand and rubble. It moves offshore in winter and forms breeding aggregations of up to fourteen per square metre. It feeds by turning its stomach out onto sediment and sponge.
Collection is prohibited in Florida.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.