©Barbara Banks: Paracorynactis hoplites eating a Linckia laevigata starfish at Horseshoe Reef, Lizard Island.
©Barbara Banks: Paracorynactis hoplites eating a Linckia laevigata starfish at Horseshoe Reef, Lizard Island.
Colours
Distinguishing features
A bare oral disc with a prominent mouth cone surrounded by tentacles with a spherical tip; looks very anemone-like if the bare oral disc is not visible.
Size
- Up to 10 cm (Diameter of oral disc of Lizard Island specimens)
- Up to 21 cm (Diameter of Philippines specimens (Bos et al, 2008).)
Synonyms
Comments
Rowlett (2020) suggests that the name Paracorynactis hoplites has been wrongly applied to this large animal and it is likely a synonym of the much smaller Pseudocorynactis globulifera. He proposes a new genus and species for this taxon (Megacorynactis giganteus) but that is in a self-published online document and the new name does not appear in WORMS (accessed 20 Feb 2021).
by Anne Hoggett
Distribution
Behaviour
This corallimorph is a predator of echinoderms and is known to eat adult Crown-of-thorns starfish and other large species (Bos et al, 2008). In the Philippines, COTS individuals up to 25 cm diameter presented to individual Paracorynactis hoplites polyps were completely ingested in less than 30 minutes (De Dios, 2015).
Web resources
References
- Bos, A.R., G.S. Gumanao and F.N. Salac (2008). A newly discovered predator of the Crown-of-Thorns Starfish. Coral Reefs, 27(3): 581. LIRS catalog number 90221.
- De Dios, H.H.Y. (2015). Predation and feeding behavior of corallimorpharian Paracorynactis hoplites (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) on Acanthaster planci in Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte, Philippines, Journal Science, Engineering and Technology, 8(1): 46-54. LIRS catalog number 90222.