A small feather star with an arm span rarely over 10 cm (4 in) and only ten arms - a modest count in a group where thirty or more is ordinary, and the quickest way to pick it out. Color runs pale yellow, green or brown, usually close to whatever it is sitting on.
It does not perch on rock. This species clings to sea whips, gorgonians and soft corals, gripping the stem with its cirri and holding its arms into the flow above the reef surface, which puts it in faster water than a bottom-dwelling animal can reach. Feeding is the family method: particles stick to mucus, cilia move them down grooves to the mouth. A whip coral carrying half a dozen of these, each a different shade, is a common sight on current-swept slopes at night, and it repays a slow look - the same whips host gobies and shrimp that are found nowhere else.
- small, arm span rarely over 10 cm
- ten slender arms only, far fewer than most feather stars
- usually clinging to a sea whip or soft coral, not to rock
- pale yellow, green or brown, often matching its perch
