308 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Stdlonia endeca Agassiz, M(Sm. soc. sci. nat. Neuchatel, vol. 1, 1835, p. 192. 



Solaster endeca Forbes, Mem. Wemcrian Soc, vol. S, pt. 1, 1839, p. 121. Authors since."— 

 Verrill, Amer. Nat., vol. 43, 1909, p. 553 (Bering Sea). 



Solaster (Endeca) endeca Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 6, 1840, p. 183. 



Solaster galaxidcs Verrhx, Amer. Joum. Sci., vol. 28, July, 1909, p. 59, fig. 2 (Victoria, British 

 Columbia). 



Diagnosis. — Eays seven to thirteen, usually nine to eleven; disk broad; rays of 

 moderate length. Distinguished by the numerous small crowded paxillse with very 

 small spinelets; papulje usually single; inferomarginal plates low, close together, 

 transversely^ elongated; superomarginals small, but little larger than adjacent 

 paxilltc ; furrow spinelets two or three, exceptionally four, short, not reaching end 

 of actinnl spines; latter in a curved series of six to eight, the inner longest, but not 

 of conspicuous length, the longest not exceeding length of base Ime of comb. 



Notes on North Pacific specimens. — Before the publication of Professor Verrill's 

 Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Stai-fishes from the North Pacific Coast 

 of America,* in which Solaster galaxidcs is described, I had set apart the specimens 

 here listed, as S. endeca. Professor Verrill Idndly identified two examples from 

 station 4246 as his S. galaxidcs. I then went over the whole genus again in the light 

 of other identifications made by Professor Verrill, but have not been able to coincide 

 with his views in regard to the present form. From station 2851, off the Shumagin 

 Islands, Alaska, 35 fathoms, is a fairly large nearly typical Solaster endeca. A com- 

 parison of this with the so-called Solaster galaxidcs from southern Alaska and other 

 localities has not brought to light any constant differences. Rather has it enforced 

 the conclusion that galaxidcs is not a distinct species, but at most a North Pacific 

 variety of the variable S. endeca. 



For comparison Atlantic specimens of S. endeca from the following localities 

 have been used: off Cape Cod, 33i to 83^ fathoms (two); Bay of Fundy (one); 

 west coast of Sweden (one). These present considerable variation among them- 

 selves, the two examples from oft' Cape Cod exhibiting almost the maximum of 

 difference. Grieg, in Echinodermen von dem norwegischen Fishereidampfer 

 Michael Sars in den Jahren 1900-1903 gesammelt indicates "= the variability in pro- 

 portions and in the number of rays of Atlantic specimens, while a good description 

 may be found in Clark's Echinoderms of the Woods Hole Region.'^ 



Number of rays, froportions. — Alaskan examples have nine, ten, or eleven rays, 

 usually ten. Atlantic specimens vary in this respect from seven to thirteen, having 

 commonly nine to eleven, and occasionally seven, eight, twelve, and tliirteen. 



There are not constant differences in proportions between Atlantic and Pacific 

 specimens. For instance, a nine-rayed example from off Cape Cod has R = 3.32 r, 

 whUe the Swedish specimen has R = 2.35 r. In the large specimen from off the Shu- 

 magin Islands, 11 = 2.46 r, and another from station 4246 has 3.3 r. Another from 

 the same station has R = 2.2 r. The types of S. galaxidcs have the ratio R = 2.7 r. 



a Ludwig in Fauna Arotica, vol. 1, 1900, p. 464, gives a considerable number of references to this 

 species. 5. syrlensis Verrill, however, is not a synonym of endeca. 

 b American Journal of Science, July, 1909. 

 c Bergens Museum Aarbog, 1906, No. 13, p. 6G. 

 <*Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. for 1902, 1904, p. 556, pi. 3, figs. 13, 14; pi. 4, fig. 23. 



