Boone, Echinodermata, Cruises of "Eagle" and "Ara," 1921-28 89 



or to a vertical rock, or similar place, then elevates the disk and 

 proximal part of the arms, in such a way as to form a closed cavity 

 beneath. The eggs are then discharged into this cavity where they 

 lie free, not attached to the parent. Development of the embryo takes 

 approximately three weeks, during which period the parent appar- 

 ently does not feed. The embryos subsist entirely on the contents of 

 the egg yolk and do not receive any nourishment direct from the 

 parent. If the parent be removed during this period, the larvae con- 

 tinue their normal development; they are occasionally found free, 

 pelagic. The normal breeding period is February to April. 



Food: Little is known of the food habits of this species. Rem- 

 nants of mollusks have been found in its digestive tract. Dr. Morten- 

 sen reports it as being once found in the mounting position above a 

 Mytilus. 



Technical description: Regularly stellate; rays five, slender, 

 tapered. R = 49 mm. long, r = 11 mm. long ; R = r 4.5. Inter- 

 brachial arcs acute. Rays slender, dorsally convex, gradually tapered 

 to a blunt recurved point. Plates of the abactinal surface are rather 

 small, crowded, forming a close, irregular network, enclosing in each 

 papular space two or three large, round papulae. Madrepore small, 

 situated midway between the center of disk and an interbrachial 

 angle. On the ventral surface of the rays the paxillae are large and 

 form two longitudinal rows. The adambulacral plates are armed on 

 the outer side with five or six similar but larger blunt spines of 

 unequal size, and those of each series increasing in size towards the 

 margin ; there is one large, marginal spine directed inward and fitting 

 alternately with a similar spine from the opposing margin, forming 

 a deep intermeshing border over the ambulacral furrow. The jaw 

 teeth are as figured. The dorsal paxillae are irregularly circular; 

 each paxilla of the disk and of the median portion of the arm has 

 from 10 to 15 short, blunt spines ; on the sides and distal ends of the 

 rays these paxillae average 8 to 10 spines apiece. 

 References: Pentadactylosaster oculatus Linck, De Stellis Marinis, 



p. 35, tab. XXXVI, no. 62, 1733. 

 Asterias sanguinolenta 0. F. Muller, Zool. Dan. Prodr., p. 234, no. 



2836, 1776.— Th. Mortensen, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, 



vol. 16, p. 546, 1925. 

 Asterias pertusa 0. F. Muller, ibid, p. 235, no. 2839, 1776. 

 Asterias ocidata Pennant, British Zool., vol. IV, p. 61, pi. XXX, 



fig. 56, 1777. 



