Habitat & Geography
The brittle star Ophiopsila riisei
is commonly found in tropical marine environments. These stars are
distributed near Belize, the Caribbean Sea (Bocas 2003), Cuba, the Gu
lf
of Mexico, Haiti, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela (EOL 2003).
This species was found in several different areas of Belizean waters
including: the Belize Barrier Reef, Elbow Cay, westernmost of the Bird
Cays, Manatee Cay shoal, Cat Cay, East Cut, Little Cat Cay, northernmost
of the Lagoon Cays, and Bakers Rendezvous Cay (Hendler and Pawson 2000).
Ophiopsila riisei was found in Panama southwest of Buenaventura
Cove, Portobelo, Ukhuptupo Islands, Florida, St. Thomas, St.
Bartholomew, Barbados, Tortola, and the coasts of Central and South
America to Brazil (EOL 2003).
In these areas, Ophiopsila riisei can be
found in coral rubble and clumps of algae along the reef crest to the
reef slope (Bocas 2003), mangroves (short trees along the tidal shore),
sea grass, sand, reef cracks/gaps, and s
ponges (Pomory 2007). Sponges
that these stars could live among could be
Plakortis simplex or
Cryptotethya crypta, for example. Generally,
this brittle star has been observed to live at a depth range of 1 meter
to 366 meters. The temperatures of the water at which this organism
occupies ranges from about 23.35 to 27.71 degrees Celsius (Bocas 2003).
Pictured above is Ophiopsila aranea, a species very
similar to Ophiopsila riisei. We see that it is burrowed in the
crevice of the reef, much like Ophiopsila riisei would behave.
To see how the body of Ophiopsila riisei is structured, check out the Adaptation page!