116 



ECHINODERMS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 



seas from the Sound to Spitzbergen ; further it occurs from 

 Greenland to Cape Cod on the American coast, and in the 

 Northern Pacific from the Bering Sea to Vancouver. Bathy- 

 metrical distribution from the littoral region down to ca. 450 m. 



2. Lophaster Verrill. 

 (Syn. Sarkaster Ludwig.) 



Disk rather large, rays 5 ; a double series of well-developed 

 marginal paxillae. 



Only one species known from British (and Euroj^ean) seas. 



1, Lophaster furcifer (Diiben and Koren). (Fig. 69.) 

 (Syn. Solaster furcifer Diiben and Koren.) 



Dorsal side rather closely covered by well-developed paxillae 

 more or less distinctly arranged in series. 3-4 furrow spines, 



Fig. 69. — Lophaster furcifer. (After Grieg, Asteroidea ''Mich. Sars'', 

 1901-3.) Nat. size. 



united by a thin web. Outer surface of adambulacral plates 

 with a transverse series of 4-5 webbed spines. R = ca. 3 r. 

 Grows to a size of ca. 125 mm, R, in Arctic regions, while farther 

 south it scarcely reaches more than ca. 80 mm. R. Colour in 

 life brick-red ; the oral side whitish. 

 Biology and development unknown. 



