Bat star

Abstract: Orchitophrya stellarum is a holotrich ciliate that facultatively parasitizes and castrates male asteriid sea stars. We discovered a morphologically similar ciliate in testes of an asterinid sea star, the northeastern Pacific bat star Patiria miniata (Brandt, 1835). This parasite may represent a threat to Canadian populations of this iconic sea star. Confirmation that the parasite is O. stellarum would indicate a considerable host range expansion, and suggest that O. stellarum is a generalist sea star pathogen.

Abstract: Sexual maturation and reproductive cycle of the bat star Asterina pectinifera were investigated by histological method. Specimens were collected monthly in Donghwari, Gosunggun, Korea from January 2004 to February 2005. The bat star was dioecious. The gonads are composed of a number of gametogenic follicles. The gonadosomatic index (GSI) of female and male were reached the maximum in July (5.72, 4.54) and the minimum in December (0.89) and January, February (0.51), and the gonad index (GI) of female and male were reached the maximum in July (3.53, 3.91) and the minimum in August (0.95) and October to December (1.0), respectively. The main spawning was from August to September. The reproductive cycle of the bat star could be divided into five stages: in the female, inactive (November-February), early active (January February), late active (March-June), ripe (July), spent and degenerative (August-November) and in the male, inactive (November-February), early active (January-March), late active (April-June), ripe (July), spent and degenerative (August-October), respectively.