l8o VERRILL 



The major pedicellariae are large and of several forms. The 

 larger dorsal ones are large, stout, erect, wedge-shaped, blunt, with 

 several small terminal denticles on each valve. They are often as 

 thick as the adjacent spines. Others are more slender, with spatulate 

 valves, terminating in about three curved, interlocking teeth. The 

 large marginal ones are very large, ovate, wedge-shaped or hammer- 

 head-shaped, with dentate valves. Those on the adambulacral 

 borders and spines are few and smaller. The madreporite is rather 

 large, with very fine gyri, without special bordering spines. 



Monterey Bay, California, Nos. 18230, 18236 types; No. 1431, 

 Alaska ? (Mus. Comp. Zool.). 



This species is easily distinguished from all those related to it by 

 the unusually large and peculiar abundant minor pedicellariae, and 

 from most large species by the small number of rows of dorsal 

 spines. The alternate superomarginal plates are not spineless, as in 

 several allied species. 



ORTHASTERIAS FORRERI FORCIPULATA Verrill. 



Plate LXII, figures 2, 3 (dorsal and actinal of ray) ; plate LXX, figure 9; plate 

 LXXXVIII, figures 6, 60 (pedicellariae). 



Asterias (Urasterias) forcipulata VERRILL, Amer. Journ. Sci., xxvm, p. 67, 

 1909; Amer. Naturalist, XLVIII, p. 542, 1909. 



Rays long and slender, gradually tapered ; length of ray, 325 mm. ; 

 breadth, not including spines, 28 mm. ; disk small. Dorsal skeleton 

 weak, with large papular areas nearly concealed by vast numbers of 

 unusually large minor pedicellariae. 



The dorsal plates are small, three- or five-lobed or stellate, each 

 of the larger ones usually bearing a rather long, tapered, subacute 

 spine ; these are well spaced and form about five irregular or indefi- 

 nite rows. The spines are surrounded by wreaths of the large minor 

 pedicellarise, but these also occur in larger clusters scattered over the 

 integument between the spines. Large major pedicellariae are also 

 scattered over the back ; these are stout, ovate-lanceolate, with obtuse 

 tips, which are usually strongly denticulate. 



On the sides of the ray and separated from those above by a wide 

 papular lane there is a row of small, mostly four-lobed superomar- 

 ginals, usually bearing a single long spine. They are connected to 

 those above by weak transverse ossicles in series, leaving large papu- 

 lar areas between. The spines are rather longer and larger than those 

 of the dorsal surface. Between these and the adambulacral spines 

 there is a single row of stouter spine-bearing plates, the inferomar- 



