---
title: "Purple Sea Star"
description: "Ophidiaster ophidianus — Weitere Tiere. Ophidiaster ophidianus, the purple starfish, is a species of starfish from the East Atlantic (from mainland Portugal and the Azores down to the Gulf of Guinea) and the Mediterranean Sea."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/de/animal/purple-sea-star
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Purple Sea Star

> Ophidiaster ophidianus — Weitere Tiere. Ophidiaster ophidianus, the purple starfish, is a species of starfish from the East Atlantic (from mainland Portugal and the Azores down to the Gulf of Guinea) and the Mediterranean Sea.

- Scientific name: *Ophidiaster ophidianus*
- Category: `other` (Weitere Tiere)
- Habitats: `sea` (Meer & Küste)
- iNaturalist observations: 1099
- Wikidata: [Q925990](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q925990)
- iNaturalist taxon: [154577](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/154577)

## Names

- en: Purple Sea Star
- fr: Etoile de mer violette

## Countries with the most observations

ES (319), GR (225), IT (203), PT (92), HR (75), FR (35), CV (20), AL (17), ME (15), MT (8), TR (8), CY (3)

## Summary

Ophidiaster ophidianus, the purple starfish, is a species of starfish from the East Atlantic (from mainland Portugal and the Azores down to the Gulf of Guinea) and the Mediterranean Sea. It has a big variation in colour (from red to orange) and may present brown spots. The central disc is small, covered by irregular plates, and the arms are thinner near the central disc. Each arm has lines of respiratory papillae. It can reach 40 cm in diameter.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophidiaster_ophidianus

## Photo

![Purple Sea Star](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/purple-sea-star/medium.jpg)

Photo: Raffaele Maiorano · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/179842242

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/purple-sea-star?lang=de` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).