Brisaster townsendi (Agassiz, 1898) is suppressed as a junior synonym of B. latifrons (Agassiz, 1898). Morphological characters cannot be used to separate the species, and meristic analysis reveals a continuous gradient which includes both species as previously interpreted. Nominal B. latifrons from Asiatic waters are not the same species and probably belong to B. owstoni Mortensen, 1950.