Actinia equina (Beadlet Anemone, Horse Anemone) is a sea anemone ,occurring in the intertidal zone, and depths up to 20 m. It has a broad base, up to 50 mm across, a smooth column, usualltywider than tall, and up to 132 tentacles in 6 circles. The color is highly variable, brown, green, or red, sometimes quite bright. This anemone has a broad native range in the East Atlantic, from Norway to Spain, Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, and the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Isolated populations occur in South Africa and the northwest Pacific (Hong Kong, Japan, Korea) and could represent cryptic species.
This anemone was discovered on multiple occasions on the Atlantic Coast, near Asbury Park, New Jersey, in May-July 2022, its first record in the Northwest Atlantic (https://uk.inaturalist.org/observations?verifiable=true& taxon_id=130085&place_id=1&preferred_place_id=6857&locale=en-GB). This species was a target for a Rapid Assessment Survey in June 2023 (James T. Carlton, personal communication 2023).