Euretaster insignis, commonly known as the striking sea star,[3] is a species of starfish in the family Pterasteridae found in the central west Pacific Ocean.

[1] In 1940, the genus had to change its name after Walter Kenrick Fisher noted that the type species of Retaster he had himself designated (as Perrier, the original coiner, had failed to do so), Pteraster capensis was in fact a sound species of Pteraster, which automatically made the former genus a synonym of the latter.

The aboral (upper) surface has an inflated appearance due to it being covered by a "supradorsal" membrane; this is supported by bundles of spinelets borne on the flat plates that are arranged in a mosaic pattern on the cuticle below.

[5] Euretaster insignis is native to the tropical western central Pacific Ocean from the intertidal zone down to about 132 m (430 ft).

Instead of being planktonic, the developing embryos are brooded in the supradorsal cavity, and even receive nourishment from the mother in the form of a mucosal secretion from the cuticle; they receive this because their presence irritates the lining of the cavity causing it to secrete the fluid in a process that has been described as "cannibalistic ectoparasitism".