4 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



c> No discobrachial septum separating disk and ray coelom as in Heliasteridae; rays 5 to 45, 

 but usually 5 or 6; skeleton of rays, aside from ambulacral and adambulaeral plates, 

 consists of 5 primary longiseries of ossicles— 1 carinal, 2 superomarginal, 2 inferomargma , 

 to which is generally added 2+ dorsolateral, 2+ actinal, and rarely 2 intcrmarginal; 

 dorsal skeleton generally elaborated into a reticulate structure with or without secondary 

 intermediate ossicles; ambulacral ossicles usually crowded; tube-feet in 2 or 4 (occa- 

 sionally more) longiseries Family Asteriidae Gray. 



Suborder Brisingina Fisher 



Family BRISINGIDAE G. 0. Sars 



Archaic deep-sea Forcipulata with small, circular disk, numerous, slender, 

 sharply differentiated, often deciduous rays, and long, delicate, sacculatc, acicular 

 marginal and adambulaeral spines; ambulacral plates massive, uncrowded, the 

 dorsal articulating region centrum-like, nonimbricating; adambulacrals usually elon- 

 gate, hour-glass-shaped; dorsal skeleton weak, that of rays variable, never reticu- 

 late,' confined to proximal third or half of ray, composed of transverse, independent, 

 parallel ridges or costae, separated by areas of integument without plates; or the 

 intervals may be partly or completely filled in with more or less imperfectly developed 

 plates immersed in the body wall; or the arches may be absent and a tessellation of 

 thin plates may cover the genital region of the ray; or there may be thin plates more 

 or less spiniferous together with differentiated transverse costae; straight pedicel- 

 lariae absent; crossed, abundant; gonads, two to many, attached to lateral integument 

 of basal portion of ray; typically a series of spaced solitary long marginal spines and 

 one to several similar shorter subambulacral spines incased in a sacculus covered 

 with tiny crossed pedicellariae; actinostome relatively large, peristome broad; mouth 

 plates expanded, usually with prominent spines. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE GENERA OF BRISINGIDAE 



a 1 . Abactinal surface of disk and genital region of ray provided with numerous conspicuous papula?; 

 two gonads to each ray; mouth plates broad and fan-shaped toward the actinostome, 

 nearly closing entrance to ambulacral furrow; genital region of ray with transverse skeletal 

 arches, between which the integument is strengthened by immersed plates and pierced by 

 papular pores; ray with regularly spaced lateral, transverse combs of upward of seven 

 conspicuous, slender spines; adambulaeral plates higher than long, with a single, promi- 

 nent subambulacral spine frequently truncate and more or less spatulate on proximal part 

 of ray; first three to five pairs of adambulaeral plates united in each interradius, and above 

 them the marginal plates similarly united; a syzygy between first and second adambulaeral 

 plates, and also sometimes a partial syzygy between the second and third and between the 

 third and fourth plates. Genotype Brisinga semicoronata Perrier Odinia Perrier. 



a*. A single circle of rather small papulae near margin of disk, two papulae corresponding to each ray; 

 rays, as in Brisinga, without papulae. First and second adambulaeral plates united by a 

 syzygy (nonmuscular symphysis) and upper part of second and third ambulacral plates 

 united by syzygy; gonads numerous, in series; first pair of adambulaeral plates and first 

 pair of marginal plates in each interbrachium closely united. Genotype Brisinga mimica 

 Fisher Brisingenes Fisher. 



a?. No papulae present either on disk or on rays; abactinal skeleton present on disk and on proximal 

 portion of rays, at least, either in the form of transverse independent skeletal arches or as 

 a continuous covering of thin plates, or both arches and intervening thin plates. 



