LITTLE CROSSFISH. 



95 



ASTERIADJE. 



URASTER EE. 



w 3L. 



LITTLE CROSSFISH. 



Uraster hispida. Penn. 



Specific Character. — Rays short, rounded, spinous. Avenues ovate. 



Asterias hispida, Penn. Brit. Zool. IV. p. 62, t. xxx. f. 58. 



Stellonia hispida, Forbes, Wern. Mem. VIII. p. 123. 



Stella coriacea acutangula hispida, Link, p. 31, t. ix. f. 19 ; t. xxxv. f. 39. 



The Uraster hispida is the smallest of our native Cross- 

 fishes. It was first distinguished by Pennant, who gives 

 a figure sufficiently characteristic to enable us to identify 

 the species, though very different animals have been re- 

 ferred to his Asterias hispida. This species seldom mea- 

 sures more than an inch and a quarter across. The rays 

 are very broad and short, being but little longer than the 

 breadth of the disk, in some specimens even shorter. The 

 body is very convex, and generally of a bright rose colour. 

 Pennant's specimen was brown. The upper surface is 

 reticulated ; stout spines of nearly equal thickness through- 

 out their length, and mostly simple at their bases, crown- 

 ing the angles of the reticulations. The ridge down the 

 centre of the very gibbous arms is often very indistinctly 



