Abstract
The development of the starfish Asterina (= Patiria) pectinifera (Muller et Troschel) from fertilization to metamorphosis took 27–28 days at 22°C and a salinity of 33–33.4‰. The embryonic development was completed by the release of swimming ciliary blastula from egg envelopes 13 h after fertilization. The larvae passed into the stage of gastrula and reached the stage of dipleurula in 35 h and the stage of bipinnaria in 3.5 days. At the stage of brachiolaria, by the 12th day of development, two lateral brachioles and one medioventral brachiole with papillae developed in the larvae. The attachment disk and the primordia of five radial canals of the juvenile starfish became visible by the 15th and 18th days, respectively. By the 24th–25th day, a differentiated primordium of a juvenile starfish had developed in the brachiolaria. The size of the larvae prior to settlement was 1765.4 ± 51.5 µm. Metamorphosis was completed one day after settlement.
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