ASTEROIDEA 



629 



Family 1. ASTERINIDAE. 



Starfishes whose arms are joined by interradial expansions of the 

 disc, with small marginal plates and with aboral plates usually imbri- 

 cated: 10 genera, 



AsTEEiNA Nardo. Body flattened, pentagonal or star-shaped: 32 

 species, in all seas, and all littoral. 



A. folium Liitken. Aboral plates, each with 3 or 4 minute spines; 

 size 5 cm.; color variable, often blue or g:reenish: Florida and West 

 Indies; common on under side of rocks. 



Fig. 975 Fig. 976 



Fig. 975 — Asterina miniata (Fisher). Fig. 976 — Henricia sanguinolenta (Clark), 



A. miniata (Brandt) (Fig. 975). Aboral plates granular; size 6 to 

 10 cm. ; color variable, but commonly red or yellow : Alaska to Lower 

 California; one of the commonest low-tide species. 



Family 2. ECHINASTERIDAE. 



Starfishes with long, slender arms; feet in 2 rows; pedicellariae 

 wanting; skeleton reticulate and formed of small imbricating plates: 

 10 genera. 



1. Henricia Gray {Cribrella Liitken). Disc small; arms long and 

 cylindrical; aboral plates form a very fine network with small meshes 

 and numerous minute spines: 20 species; in northern seas. 



H. sanguinolenta (0. F. Miiller) (Fig. 976). Body bright red, 

 purple, lavender, or yellow above and yellowish below; diameter 7 to 10 

 cm.: common from Greenland to Long Island Sound, ranging as far 

 south as Cape Hatteras, from low-water mark to 200 fathoms; Pacific 

 coast; Europe; Asia. 



2. EcHlNASTER Miiller and Troschel. Arms long and cylindrical; 

 meshes of aboral skeletal network rather large, with coarse, scattered 

 spines: 20 species; littoral. 



