Edotia GuérinMéneville, 1844: 34.– Cunningham, 1871: 499; Miers, 1881: 74.– Richardson, 1900: 131.– Ohlin, 1901: 292.– Stebbing, 1914: 353.– Giambiagi, 1925: 12.– Nordenstam, 1933: 94.– Sheppard, 1957: 154.– Menzies & Barnard, 1959: 21.– Menzies, 1962: 90.– Müller, 1988: 407.– Brandt, 1990: 152.
Desmarestia Nicolet, 1849: 284 [junior homonym also of Desmarestia Herrmannsen, 1847 (a mollusc) and Desmarestia Czerniavsky, 1878 (decapod crustacean) — see Neave 2006].
Epelys Dana, 1849: 426.– Harger, 1880: 357.
Edotea Ohlin, 1901: 292.– Richardson, 1905: 394.
Type species: Edotia tuberculata GuérinMéneville, 1844; by monotypy.
Diagnosis [modified after Brandt (1990) and Wägele (1991)]
Body heavily calcified, oval, with tubercular or smooth body surface, broadest at pereonites 3 to 5. Pereonite 1 not fused with head, head sometimes ornamented with lobelike protrusions or elevations. Coxal plates laterally protruded, coxal plates of anterior segments fused to tergites (exception: E. bilobata), not fused on pereonites 5–7 (Sheppard 1957). Pleon of up to 3 pleonites plus indication of another pleonite laterally on pleotelson. All pleonites fused with telson to pleotelson. Pleotelson caudally narrowing, round or concave, without caudal spines. Antennae short, as long as head only or as cephalothorax, proximal articles not much broader than distal articles. Flagellum of antenna 2 rudimentary, consisting of a single, thick article with a minute apical article. Maxilliped palp of 3 articles. All pereopods subsimilar, with stout propodus and dactylus forming a subchela, best developed in anterior pereopods. Uropods uniramous, ventral small ramus reduced.