PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 97(1), 1984, pp. 194-208 SYSTEMATICS OF THE OPHIDIASTERID SEA STARS COPID ASTER LYMANI A. H. CLARK, AND HACELIA SUPERBA H. L. CLARK (ECHINODERMATA: ASTEROIDEA) WITH A KEY TO SPECIES OF OPHIDIASTERIDAE FROM THE WESTERN ATLANTIC John E. Miller Abstract. — Copidaster lymani A. H. Clark, 1948, is reported and redescribed from new material collected at Carrie Bow Cay (Belize), Portobelo (Panama), and Ascension Island. These are the first western Atlantic records of C. lymani since description of the holotype from Florida. Revisions by earlier authors, in which Copidaster is synonymized with the genera Leiaster or Ophidiaster, are rejected, and Ophidiaster schismochilus H. L. Clark, 1922, is referred to the genus Copi-daster. A redescription of Hacelia superba H. L. Clark is presented. Previous accounts of this species from the western Atlantic have been limited to the type-locality, Barbados; new locality records from North and South Carolina, the east coast of Florida and the northern Gulf of Mexico are reported herein. Relation-ships between H. capensis Mortensen, 1925, from South Africa and H. superba are discussed. A key to the species of Ophidiasteridae from the western Atlantic is included. In the tropical western Atlantic, Caribbean, and Gulf of Mexico, the asteroid family Ophidiasteridae is represented by 13 nominal species (Downey, unpub-lished; this study). For four species, Copidaster lymani A. H. Clark, 1948, C. schismochilus (H. L. Clark, 1922) new combination, Hacelia superba H. L. Clark, 1921, and Ophidiaster bayeri A. H. Clark, 1 948, no new material has been reported from the western Atlantic since description of the holotypes. At Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, Central America, four specimens of an unusual ophidiasterid sea star were found in shallow tide pools beneath heaps of coral rubble. They proved to be Copidaster lymani, a species previously known only from the type-specimen collected off Key Largo, Florida, and from material de-scribed by Nataf and Cherbonnier (1975) from the west coast of Africa. Subsequent examination of unidentified or misidentified material housed at the Smithsonian Institution revealed numerous additional specimens from Carrie Bow Cay and Ascension Island. The generic position of C. lymani has been a matter for debate since Clark's (1948) description of this species. Downey (1973) referred C. lymani to the genus Leiaster, while Nataf and Cherbonnier (1975) preferred to drop the name Copi-daster in favor of Ophidiaster. In the present study, important morphological characters of Copidaster, Leiaster and Ophidiaster are compared and the need to retain the generic name Copidaster is demonstrated. Additionally, C lymani and C. schismochilus are shown to be congeneric. During diving operations aboard Research Submersible Johnson-Sea-Link I,
Systematics Of The Ophidiasterid Sea stars Copidaster lymani New record And Hacelia superba New record Echinodermata Asteroidea With A Key To Species Of Ophidiasteridae From The Western Atlantic
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