Caymanostella Belyaev, 1974

Shen, Zihui, Koch, Nicolás Mongiardino, Seid, Charlotte A., Tilic, Ekin & Rouse, Greg W., 2024, Three New Species of Deep-Sea Wood-Associated Sea Stars (Asteroidea: Caymanostellidae) from the Eastern Pacific, Zootaxa 5536 (3), pp. 351-388 : 362

Caymanostella Belyaev, 1974

Type species. Caymanostella spinimarginata Belyaev, 1974

Diagnosis (emended). Adult body pentagonal to stellate in outline with thin or thick epidermis. Abactinal plates polygonal to oval or circular shaped. Inferomarginals similar in size to the adjoining superomarginals or larger. Granuliform to spiniform abactinal armaments. Club-shaped fringe spines on edges of inferomarginal plates. Gonopores either in notches at the proximal margin of two proximal-most superomarginal plates or piercing through the plates. Papulae absent. Actinal membrane with no spicules.

Remarks. Notable features of Caymanostella include granuliform to spiniform abactinal armament, and their gonopores are either located in notches of the proximal-most superomarginal plates, or pierce through them ( Dilman et al. 2022; Rowe, 1989). The diagnosis of Caymanostella is emended from Rowe (1989) to accommodate two new species from the Pacific margin of Costa Rica, Caymanostella scrippscognaticausa sp. nov. and Caymanostella davidalani sp. nov., as well as one new species from the Gulf of California, Caymanostella loresae sp. nov., based on characters shared among adult specimens. Molecular data of the type specimen or from the type locality is needed to further evaluate the monophyly and taxonomy of Caymanostella .