Henricia oculata is a starfish of 10 to 20 cm in diameter. It has five long and
rigid cylindrical tapering arms. Its surface is smooth, of variable colour, purple to orange with sometimes
red spots. It lives on sand, gravels, stones and rocks and feeds on sponges.
It is found from surface to 100 m deep in the Atlantic Ocean down to the Bay of Biscay, in the
English channel, the North Sea and the Western-Baltic Sea.
Henricia sanguinolenta is a species very similar to H. oculata but their distributions are different: H. sanguinolata is only a circumartic species.
(source : European Register of Marine Species)
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Henricia oculata
Blood-star fish
Top photograph :
© Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission :
Henricia oculata,
Iles Glénan, South-Brittany, West of France. Depth 20 meters.
Bottom photograph : © Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission :
Henricia oculata, Blood-star fish. Iles Glénan, South-Brittany, West of France. Depth 18 meters
Text : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2005-2019.
Translation : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2007-2019.
