Apricot to bright orange with white spots. Quite rough and spiny to the touch.

The apricot seastar is found in large numbers on the Otago shelf. Can also be found in rock pools and under rocks in the low intertidal.

It feeds on bivalves which it pulls open using its tube feet. Once the shell is open, the star pushes its stomach into the bivalve, secretes digestive enzymes, and absorbs its meal on the spot!.

Starfish have a sieve plate full of tiny holes, seawater is sucked through this plate and is for respiration and to inflate the tube feet. The tube feet often have suckers at the tip and serve as as walking legs. Seastars are famous for their ability to regenerate arms but what is less commonly known is that if the missing arm has a piece of the central disc of the seastar attached to it, then the arm will grow a new seastar. A large arm with a regenerating star is called a comet Adult individuals have five arms but small, immature individuals have six. This led to the giving of a separate generic name to the juveniles, Hydrasterias, before it was realised that only one genus was involved. These young individuals often undergo fissiparity. The disc splits into two parts, each bearing three arms, and new arms develop on each part to complete the complement of arms. This sometimes happens repeatedly and may be an adaptation to life in cold, deep seas where most of the species are found. Can broadcast spawn.

A Guide to the Plants and Animals of the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre: McKinnon