Lydiaster Koehler 1909

Mah, Christopher L., 2018, New genera, species and occurrence records of Goniasteridae (Asteroidea; Echinodermata) from the Indian Ocean, Zootaxa 4539 (1), pp. 1-116 : 53

Lydiaster Koehler 1909

Koehler 1909: 91; Halpern 1970: 265; Mah 2006: 923.

Diagnosis. As for species.

Comments. As shown in Mah (2006), Lydiaster is closely related to Circeaster , differing primarily in that the abactinal disk plates do not abruptly enlarge on the arm as they do on Circeaster . Other species of Circeaster , including the widely occurring Circeaster arandae from Madagascar and Circeaster pullus and Circeaster sandrae from the central and South Pacific Ocean have been observed in situ and appear to be predators of deep-sea octocorals ( Mah 2006, 2015; Mah unpublished data from R/V Okeanos Explorer). Wallastra n. gen. (described below) also shows some character similarity with Circeaster and Lydiaster .