326 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



who have confined their attention to examples from the North Atlantic and adja- 

 cent portions of the Arctic Ocean. The North Pacific specimens are also variable, 

 so much so, in fact, that the extremes are very unlike. The species tends to form 

 small varieties differing with locahty and also with depth, but there are instances 

 where the same variation (or nearly the same) is repeated in widely separated 

 places. The forms listed herewith as Solaster papposus may in reality be small 

 species, but it has not been possible to separate them on account of intergrades. 

 With the exception of the Japanese specimens, which are believed to constitute a 

 distinct species, all the North Pacific varieties have been called Solaster papposus. 



Variety A. — One of the most striking varieties is that from Point Franklin, 

 Bering Island, Kadiak, and Sakhalin. (A complete list of stations given in record 

 of specimens.) In this the rays are ten, less often eleven, short, and robust. The 

 paxilljE arc lower than in tyjjical papposus, globose, the spinelets being much shorter. 

 In this form the central spinelets of a paxilla are relatively short, the whole paxilla 

 being about as high as broad, while in typical papposus the central spinelets alone 

 are longer than the width of a paxilla. The midradial paxiUiB arc larger than the 

 rest and form a fairly straight series. The abactinal skeleton is decidedly of the 

 reticulate form characteristic of papposus and not closely imbricated ° as in S. 

 squamatus (Doderlein). The marginal paxillse likewise have much shorter spine- 

 lets and pedicels, showing about the same relative difference from the typical form 

 as do the abactinal paxillse. Adambulacral plates Avith three or four moderately 

 long skin-covered and partly webbed spinelets, the adoral when there are four 

 being shorter than the rest. In the transverse subambulacral series are six or 

 seven tapering spinelets, equahng or slightly exceeding the furrow spinelet. The 

 inner end of the series curves aborad. Mouth plates with six or seven marginal 

 and tliree or four suboral spinelets. Actinal interradial areas with two to twelve 

 small tufts of short spinelets. In general appearance this variety departs farthest 

 from the type, especially on account of the low globose paxillse. I have examined 

 a specimen from station 5024, Okhotsk Sea, off the east coast of Sakhalin, vicinity 

 of Cape Patience, which is referable to this variety. The largest specimen (station 

 4795) measures: R = 66 mm.; r = 35 mm.; R = 1.86 r. In this the midradial row 

 of paxillse is not quite so prominent as in smaller examples, but the rays are thick 

 and the interradial areas unusually large. (See pi. 94, figs. 4, 5.) 



Two specimens from station 3231, having eleven and twelve rays, are inter- 

 mediate between variety A and typical papposus. The abactinal surface is nearly 

 as in A, but the numerous rays, reduced actinal interradial areas, and longer adam- 

 bulacral spinelets are more like the typical form. 



Variety B. — From stations 4777 and 4778 are four specimens which show a 

 combination of the characters of variety A and variety C, and are only slightly 

 (lifFercnt from typical papposus. The midradial row of paxillse is well marked, 

 but all the paxilljB are higher than in variety A, though not so high or so slender as 

 in C. Rays ten or eleven. 



Variety C. — This form differs from typical papposus in having the midradial 

 paxillse longer and slenderer and the rays slenderer as a rule. Rays ten or eleven. 



" De-scribed and figured by Grieg, Bergens Museums Aarbog, 1906, No. 13, pp. 46-66, text figs. 7,8; 

 pi. 1, figs. 6-8. 



