Stylasteridae

The Stylasteridae

Stylasterids occur worldwide at depths from the intertidal to almost 2800 m, although most species are found between 200 and 700 m. Of the 42 species known from the western Atlantic (Cairns 1986), only one is recorded for shallow-water, Stylaster roseus (Pallas 1766), which has a wide geographic range from the Bahamas to the state of Bahia (Brazil) and is the only species positively identified for the Brazilian coast. Nevertheless, a second stylasterid, Stylaster duchassaingi De Pourtalès, 1867, was recorded off the coast of Brazil: first by Rathbun (1879) and then by Mosely (1881), in a report on stylasterids collected aboard the Challenger. Almost a century later, Laborel (1970) reported that a specimen was observed off the northeastern coast, in the state of Pernambuco and Hetzel & Castro (1994) to the Southern state of Bahia. However, as other occurrences were never recorded, we believe that these specimens were in fact Stylaster roseus.