User:Basilosauridae/sandbox/Bat star

The bat star (Patiria miniata), also known as a sea bat, webbed star, and broad-disk star, is a species of sea star in the family Asterinidae. The bat star gets its name from the webbing between its arms, which resembles a bat's wings.

Description
It typically has five arms, but can have as many as nine. The central disk is wider than the arms are long. Bat stars occur in many of colors, including green, purple, red, orange, yellow and  brown and can be either mottled or solid.

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It lacks the pincers or pedicellariae that most sea stars use to clean the skin surface of debris, but its small, moving hairs or cilia may create enough of a water current to keep the surface of its skin clean.

t has visual sensors at the end of each ray that can detect light and note prey. To eat its prey, it covers the prey with its stomach  and oozes  digestive juices over it; this liquefies the food, enabling the bat star to ingest it. It is omnivorous, eating both plants and animals alive or dead.

Distribution and habitat
The bat star is usually found in the intertidal zone to a depth of 79 m. Its range extends from Sitka, Alaska to Baja California in the Pacific Ocean. It is most abundant along the coast of Central California and the Monterey Bay.

Diet
Bat stars are play a role in their ecosystem as detritivores and scavengers, collecting algae and dead animals from the ocean floor and helping keep the ocean healthy.

Reproduction
The bat stars reproduce through spawning. The male casts sperm and the female drops eggs; each has pores at the base of the rays for this purpose. The sperm and egg unite at sea and are carried away by ocean currents.

Defense
Bat stars may gently "fight" with each other if they meet. Fighting behavior consists of pushing and laying an arm over the other.