Taxonomy of the sea stars (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) from Bahia State, including ontogenetic variation and an illustrated key to the Brazilian species Author Cunha, Rosana 0000-0002-0858-0041 rosana.fcunha@alumni.usp.br Author Martins, Luciana 0000-0002-0858-0041 rosana.fcunha@alumni.usp.br Author Menegola, Carla 0000-0002-4913-366X carla.menegola@gmail.com Author Souto, Camilla 0000-0002-0858-0041 rosana.fcunha@alumni.usp.br text Zootaxa 2021 2021-04-13 4955 1 1 78 journal article 7258 10.11646/zootaxa.4955.1.1 154fa04a-d90d-401d-8d8f-52467a275fce 1175-5326 4691078 E800A72A-C56A-492C-9EE6-FA4F8277DE31 Family Astropectinidae Gray, 1840 Genus Astropecten Gray, 1840 Type species. Astropecten aranciacus ( Linnaeus, 1758 ) (by subsequent designation by Fisher, 1908 ). Remarks. With more than 105 species described, Astropecten is one of the most diverse sea star genera ( Zulliger & Lessios 2010 ). Of these species, 25 occur in the Atlantic Ocean and eight occur in Brazil : Astropecten acutiradiatus , A. alligator Perrier, 1881 , A. antillensis , A. articulatus ( Say, 1825 ) , A. brasiliensis brasiliensis , A. cingulatus , A. duplicatus Gray, 1840 and A. marginatus . In the molecular phylogeny of the genus Astropecten proposed by Zulliger & Lessios (2010) , the West Atlantic species form a clade with the East Pacific species, most likely separated by the Isthmus of Panama as suggested by Tortonese (1956) . Sister to this clade is a clade composed of East Atlantic and Mediterranean species. Diet of this genus is generally composed of bivalves, gastropods and small crustaceans ( Christensen 1970 ; Ribi et al . 1977 ; Ventura 1991 ). Species of the genus Astropecten are used for medicinal purposes in the northeastern Brazil , where the tea of the whole specimen is drunk to treat asthma and cough, to prevent abortion and to reduce menstrual bleeding (Alves & Rosa 2006).