Purple Velvet Star
Amazing fact
It is rare to find a Leiaster leachi sea star with all its arms the same length.
宇久井ビジターセンター
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
It is rare to find a Leiaster leachi sea star with all its arms the same length.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Purple Velvet Star
- Scientific name
- Leiaster leachi
- Japanese name
- オオアカヒトデ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Class
- Asteroidea
- Order
- Valvatida
- Family
- Ophidiasteridae
- Genus
- Leiaster
It lives from the seas south of the Boso Peninsula across the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific.
Basic data
- Size
- up to about 60 cm
- Range
- South of Boso Peninsula, Indian and western Pacific Oceans
Where the Purple Velvet Star has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- オオアカヒトデ
- Français
- Étoile bordeaux
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — オオアカヒトデChecked: 2026-11-04
- 宇久井ビジターセンター — オオアカヒトデChecked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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