254 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, 



6'. Abactinal platps bcariiig tufts of epinelets; no membrane or granules; papula in a single row on 



either side of med ian radial line Anseropoda Nardo. 



l^. Abactinal plates covered with membrane, bearing granules; no tufts of epinelets; papulae in 

 several rows on each side of the median radial line. (Furrow spinelets two or three, united along 



ray by granulous membrane; no actinal adambulacral spinelets) Stegnasttr Sladen, 



o'. With five interradially placed eliti, perforating disk (opening on both surfaces) ; general form that of 

 Anseropoda but thicker; abactinal plates imbricated, with free margin toward center of disk, and 

 forming a somewhat rhombic equamiform tessellatitjn; papul* in a petaloid radial area, not reach- 

 in" center of disk Tremastcrinx « Sladen. 



Interradial slits about aa long as width of plate, situated one-fourth r from center, guarded by seven 

 or eight spinelets on each side; ventrally apertures open just behind broad mouth plates; anal 

 opening prominent, guarded by spinelets; on papular areas the adcentral free curved edge of 

 plates provided with four to ten sharp appressed spines covering four or more papute and appar- 

 ently protecting them; papulae emerging singly under edge of plates; elsewhere abactinal plates 

 without marginal spines but roughened by low granule-like protuberances; actinal intermediate 

 plates armed with slightly flattened spines similar to those of Valvasier, about one to a plate; 

 adambulacral plates with a minute spine in furrow (sometimes two), and then in a transverse line 

 two conspicuous spines like those of actinal intermediate plates b Tremaster Verrill. 



Genus ASTERINA Nardo. 



Asterina Nardo, De Asteriis, Oken's Isis, 1834, p. 710. Type, Asterias minula 01ivi=,4s/mas 



gibbosa Pennant. 

 Aslensais MiiLLER and Troschel (part), Monatsber. preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1840, p. 140. 

 Patiria Gray (not Perrier, Sladen, and authors), Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 6, Dec, 1840, 



p. 290. Type Patina {=Asterina) cocdnea Gray. 



Diagnosis. — General form broadly stellate to pentagonal, with large, more 

 or less elevated disk, and sharp angular margins defined by minute regular marginal 

 plates; abactinal plates externally crescentiform, interspersed with granuliform 

 secondary plates, and bearing granules or short spinelets; internally three or four 

 lobed and imbricating; papulae in areas or single, widely distributed; actinal and 

 adambulacral plates with combs of spinelets sometimes united by web. 



This genus, which is in need of a thorough revision, contains about thirty species, 

 some of which have a wide distribution. The genus as a whole is confined to the 

 littoral zone, never occurring at any considerable depth, and is nearly cosmopohtan 

 in tropical and temperate seas. 



ASTERINA MINIATA (Brandt). 



PI. .56, figs. 8, 8a.; pi. 61, figs. 1^; pi. 62, figs. 1, 2. 



Asterias miniata Brandt, Prodromus, 1835, p. 68 (Sitka). 



Asteriscus miniatus Stimpson, Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., vol. 6, 1857, p. 530. 



Asterina miniata Perrier. — Sladen, Challenger Asteroidea, 1889, p. 774. 



Diagnosis. — Rays five (exceptionally six or seven). General form stellate with 

 short broad rays and high, inflated disk; R = 67 mm.; r = 40 mm.; R = 1.7 r; 

 breadth of ray at base, 44 mm.; occasional specimens \vith R = 2 r; interbrachial 

 arcs rounded and wide; tip of rays blunt. Primary abactinal plates crescent-shaped 

 (the concave margin tow^ard center of disk), intei-spersed with numerous small 



o Challenger Asteroidea, 1889, p. xxxiv. 



* I examined the type at the Peabody Museum, New Haven, and another specimen in the U. S. 

 National Museum in Washington. 



