Othilia Gray, 1840

Cunha, Rosana, Martins, Luciana, Menegola, Carla & Souto, Camilla, 2021, Taxonomy of the sea stars (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) from Bahia State, including ontogenetic variation and an illustrated key to the Brazilian species, Zootaxa 4955 (1), pp. 1-78 : 27

Genus Othilia Gray, 1840

Type species. Othilia echinophora ( Lamarck, 1816) (type by subsequent designation by Fisher, 1911).

Remarks. Previously demoted as a subgenus of Echinaster by Clark & Tortonese (1986) because of the lack of exclusive morphological characters (see Clark & Downey [1992] for a thorough revision), the re-erection of the genus Othilia is supported by morphological ( Fontanella & Hopkins 2003) and molecular evidence (Lopes et al. 2016). These phylogenies have shown that Othilia is a monophyletic group and that the genus Echinaster is more closely related to Henricia than to Othilia .

Fontanella & Hopkins (2003) found five synapomorphies supporting the genus Othilia , but unfortunately these were not listed in their paper. A.M. Clark (1987) distinguished Echinaster from Othilia using two diagnostic characters: the arrangement of the dorsolateral plates, which are organized into an irregular reticulum in Echinaster and a regular reticulum in Othilia ; and the presence of actinal plates between the inferomarginal and adambulacral plates in Echinaster . However, Lopes et al. (2016) mentioned that, based on the literature, E. callosus Marenzeller, 1895 and E. luzonicus ( Gray, 1840) do not have actinal plates.

Three species of Othilia have been reported for the Brazilian coast: O. brasiliensis , O. echinophora and O. guyanensis .

Species of the genus Othilia are commercially exploited in Rio de Janeiro and Bahia as souvenirs and for the aquarium trade, and they are also used for medicinal (treatment of asthma and alcoholism) and religious purposes ( Nobre & Campos-Creasey 2000; Alves et al. 2009; Alves & Dias 2010; Martins et al. 2012 [as Echinaster guyanensis ]).