Ophiosphalmidae, O'Hara, Stohr, Hugall, Thuy & Martynov, 2018

Stöhr, Sabine, Hugall, Andrew F., Thuy, Ben & Martynov, Alexander, 2018, Morphological diagnoses of higher taxa in Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) in support of a new classification, European Journal of Taxonomy 416, pp. 1-35 : 8

Family Ophiosphalmidae fam. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:67BE8BBA-D959-40E4-9E02-73A9F483A18E

Type genus

Ophiosphalma H.L. Clark, 1941 (type species: O. planum ( Lyman, 1878b) = O. armigerum ( Lyman, 1878a)) .

Other genera

Ophiolipus Lyman, 1878b , Ophiomusium Lyman, 1869 (only species O. eburneum Lyman, 1869 ).

Diagnosis

Numerous disc scales, small primary plates. Dorsal and ventral arm plates present along most of the arm. Lateral arm plate with a finely meshed proximal band that lacks spurs. Longer genital slits than Ophiomusa . Three (rarely 2–5) visible proximal pairs of tentacle pores. Frequently with small disc spines distal to the genital slit around the disc margin. In our molecular analysis, the genus Ophiolipus (lacking disc plates) is polyphyletic.