Ophiophragmus Lyman, 1865

Alitto, Renata A. S., Bueno, Maristela L., Guilherme, Pablo D. B., Domenico, Maikon Di, Christensen, Ana Beardsley & Borges, Michela, 2018, Shallow-water brittle stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) from Araçá Bay (Southeastern Brazil), with spatial distribution considerations, Zootaxa 4405 (1), pp. 1-66 : 24

Genus Ophiophragmus Lyman, 1865

Type taxon. Ophiophragmus wurdemanii ( Lyman, 1860) , originally described as Amphiura wurdemanii .

Diagnosis. Disc with scales dorsally and ventrally. Radial shields partially or entirely joined. Fence of papillae at the edge of the disc interradius. Two lateral oral papillae, distal slightly larger than the proximal. Dorsal arm plates usually as wide as long. One to three tentacle scales. Three arm spines ( Lyman 1865; Thomas 1962; Tommasi 1970; Albuquerque 1986).

Comments. The genus Ophiophragmus was proposed for species of Amphiura possessing a fence of papillae at the edge of the disc ( Lyman 1865). This is the most helpful diagnostic feature for the genus ( Clark 1918). However, other morphological characteristics must be examined as these structures can be confused with the uppermost series of plates on the dorsal interradial areas of some Amphiodia ( Clark 1918) . The shape of arm spines, oral shields, and dorsal arm plates are also regarded as diagnostic features for the genus ( Clark 1918; Thomas 1962). Ophiophragmus presently includes 18 species ( Stöhr et al. 2016) with seven being recorded from Brazil ( Barboza & Borges 2012): O. brachyactis H.L. Clark, 1915 , O. cubanus (A. H. Clark, 1917) , O. filograneus ( Lyman, 1875) , O. luetkeni (Ljungman, 1871) , O. pulcher H. L. Clark, 1918 , O. septus ( Lütken, 1859) and O. wurdemanii ( Lyman, 1860) .