A stiff, granular southern sea star patterned in orange and cream rings, on rock rather than sand.
To about 26 cm. The field mark is the tabulae: cylindrical columns covered in granules with flat or slightly convex tops, getting smaller towards the arm tips.
Two congeners share the coast and the separation rests on the shape and arrangement of those tabulae, so an identification without a clear photograph of them should be recorded at genus level.
Surface to two hundred and forty metres on exposed reef. It is the commonest sea star on exposed Victorian and Tasmanian reefs and the only one north of Eden in New South Wales. It grazes sponges and sea squirts.
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.