Sea star from the northwestern Pacific referred to as Henricia aspera Fisher and H. a. robusta Djakonov

The sea star Henricia oculata (Pennant, 1777 (See CR29)) is a common species known from the northern Atlantic for more than two centuries. This species has never been reported from Russian coastline along the Arctic and northwestern Pacific. Here, we report its population from Bering Sea off Mednyi Island of Commander Islands archipelago. DNA barcode of H. oculata from Commander Islands, which is a fragment of mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, is similar to the barcodes of the specimens from the northeastern Pacific and northern Atlantic. Moreover, all museum collections H. aspera from Russian waters of the Pacific belong to H. oculata because of their morphology. A form known as H. aspera robusta Djakonov, 1958 (See CR11) previously reported from Bering Sea to the Sea of Japan represents closely related lineage to H. oculata, therefore the name robusta Djakonov 1958 (See CR11) is likely a junior synonym of oculata Pennant, 1777 (See CR29) or its Pacific subspecies. In addition, I am recognizing the name H. aspera robusta Djakonov, 1949 (See CR13) as unavailable because its publication does not contain a description or definition that states in words the characters that are purposed to differentiate the taxon, as required by International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, therefore, the lectotype for H. aspera robusta Djakonov, 1958 (See CR11) has been designated. I found no differences between H. aspera and H. a. robusta specimens studied by A.M. Djakonov, who reported H. aspera from Russian waters of the northwestern Pacific. The neotype of Asterias oculata Pennant, 1777 (See CR29) is fixed in this publication.