1 6 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



a storm. Little is known of its habits, but it is thought to live 

 buried in the sand below low-water mark. It is short and thick, 

 with firm body walls of a whitish color, and has peculiar plates 

 in the skin. 



The species enumerated above comprise all the Echinoderms 

 known to occur in Long Island Sound, although the biological 

 survey of these waters is far from complete. It is quite probable 

 that future investigations will reveal the presence of additional 

 species. The fauna of the eastern portion of the Sound includes 

 more species than that of the western portion, because of its more 

 varied physical conditions and its immediate connection with the 

 Atlantic sea bottom. 



Although the Echinoderms of this region are of no value 

 commercially, they are of great economic importance because of 

 the enormous injury which results from the depredations of the 

 common starfish on the oyster beds. The members of the other 

 classes feed mainly on seaweeds, minute organisms, and organic 

 matter found upon the rocks and in the mud and sand between 

 tides and covering the floor of the sea. They are therefore quite 

 harmless to human interests, and are of some economic value in 

 that they furnish a portion of the food supply of some of our 

 edible fishes. Although covered with so firm an armor of de- 

 fensive plates and spines, such species as the sand-dollar 

 (Echinarachnius parma), the key-hole urchin (Mellita penta- 

 pora), and the species of serpent stars are nevertheless greedily 

 devoured by the cod and other fishes. The holothurians with 

 their less formidable plates are seized by various species of fishes, 

 dragged from their burrows, and devoured. In their larval 

 stages, too, the Echinoderms of all classes are eaten in enormous 

 numbers by the surface fishes. It is however difficult to estimate 

 the actual importance of these animals in respect to the human 

 food supply. 



The various groups of Echinoderms are likewise of great 

 scientific interest, because of their remarkable anatomical struc- 

 ture, their peculiar modes of development, and their curious 

 habits. No other group of the animal kingdom illustrates more 

 clearly the modifications which the same organ-system can undergo 

 in its adaptations to a great variety of functions. The evidence 



