Asterinidae Gray, 1840

O’Loughlin, P. Mark & Waters, Jonathan M., 2004, A molecular and morphological revision of genera of Asterinidae (Echinodermata: Asteroidea), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 61 (1), pp. 1-40 : 5-7

Asterinidae Gray, 1840

Synonymy. See Clark and Downey, 1992.

Diagnosis. See Clark and Downey, 1992.

Genera. See Table 2 .

Remarks. We do not revise the family diagnosis of Clark and Downey (1992). Changes to the list of genera in A.M. Clark (1993) are: Cryptasterina Dartnall et al., 2003 , Meridiastra O’Loughlin, 2002 , Aquilonastra O’Loughlin gen. nov., Indianastra O’Loughlin gen. nov., Parvulastra O’Loughlin gen. nov. and Pseudopatiria O’Loughlin gen. nov. are added; Allopatiria Verrill, 1913 is a junior synonym of Asterina Nardo, 1834 ; Patiria Gray, 1840 is raised out of synonymy with Asterina ; Manasterina H.L. Clark, 1938 is a junior synonym of Disasterina Perrier, 1875 ; Paxillasterina A.M. Clark, 1983 is a junior synonym of Asterinides Verrill, 1913 , which is maintained as a valid genus; and Asterinopsis Verrill, 1913 and Desmopatiria Verrill, 1913 are rejected.

We agree with H.L. Clark (1938) that Asterinopsis Verrill, 1913 is nomen dubium. Verrill (1913) designated Asterias penicillaris Lamarck, 1816 (Indo-Pacific) the type species, and assigned Asterina pilosa Perrier, 1881 (West Indies) and Asterina lymani Perrier, 1881 (synonymous according to Clark and Downey, 1992) to Asterinopsis . Fisher (1919) added Nepanthia pedicellaris Fisher, 1913 to Asterinopsis . Mortensen (1933) judged that the type of A. penicillaris was lost and that no reliable specimens or image were available. H.L. Clark (1938, 1946) pointed out that Mortensen’s case for the dubious state of penicillaris would render Asterinopsis also dubious. He further pointed out that Asterinopsis included both West Indian and Indo-Pacific species. A.M. Clark (1993) awaited reassessment, and listed N. pedicellaris and A. pilosa under Asterinopsis . In this work N. pedicellaris is referred to Nepanthia and A. pilosa is assigned to Asterinides .

A.M. Clark (1993) listed Desmopatiria Verrill, 1913 , but noted “validity doubtful since identity of type species doubtful”. The genus was erected for the new species D. flexilis Verrill, 1913 . It was described from a single dry specimen, without a label, found in the YPM collections with some asteroids from Chile. A recent search of the YPM collections by Eric Lazo-Wasem (pers. comm.) failed to find the specimen. No subsequent specimen has been referred to the species or genus. In the absence of both type specimen and record of type locality, the species D. flexilis and genus Desmopatiria are judged to be nomina nuda.