2 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Dr C H Gilbert, Dr. H. Heath, Dr. Carl Hubbs, Dr. G. Dallas Hanna, Mr. H. C. 

 McMillin, Dr. Charles H. O'Donoghue, Mrs. Ida S. Oldroyd, Mr. E. F. Ricketts 

 Mr. S. P. Smith, Prof. J. 0. Snyder, Prof. E. C. Starks, Dr. F. W. Weymouth, and 



Mr. George Willetts. 



After completion of part 1, work on the collections was discontinued in order to 

 allow for the publication of Verrill's "Shallow-water Starfishes," 1 which was delayed 

 until 1914. In the meantime I had undertaken a report on the very extensive col- 

 lection of sea stars made by the Albatross in the East Indies from 1907 to 1910. Work 

 on the north Pacific collections was resumed in 1918, but other duties have interfered 

 with the completion of the manuscript, of which this installment is about one-half. 

 It is hoped, however, that the results have been improved by a ripening process and 

 may therefore be of more permanent value. 



Additions to the bibliographic list will be deferred to part 3. References have 

 been made sufficiently full to obviate any inconvenience from this omission. 



The photographic figures were made in the photographic laboratory of the 

 United States National Museum. The drawings are by the writer. 



SYSTEMATIC DISCUSSION OF THE FAUNA 



Class ASTEROIDEA Burmeister 2 



Order FORCIPULATA Perrier 



Stelleridae Forcipulatae Perrier, M<5ui. fitoiles de Mer, 1884, p. 167. 

 Forcipulata Pesrier Exp6d. sci. Travailleur et Talisman, 1894, p. 27. 

 Cryptozonia (part) Sladen, Challenger Asteroidea, 1889, p. 397. 

 Forcipulosa Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes, etc., 1914, p. 24. 



Differing from all other orders of Asteroidea chiefly in the presence of crossed 

 (forcipiform) and straight (forficiform) pedicellariae, or of either alone. Form always 

 stellate, the rays, five to many, frequently slender and long. Abactinal skeleton when 

 present formed of skeletal arches (transverse on rays), either independent or bound 

 together by intermediate plates, forming a network with rectangular or very irregu- 

 lar meshes. The skeletal arches usually correspond to every other or to every third 

 adambulacral and are composed of pieces exactly or approximately corresponding in 

 the ventral, lateral, and dorsal regions of ray. In most cases the plates also form more 

 or less definite longiseries, among which the actinal (when present) and marginal are 

 almost always regular, the carinal usually regular, and the dorsolaterals usually 

 irregular; marginal plates usually not greatly larger than abactinal, sometimes partly 

 or wholly suppressed, especially when abactinal skeleton is imperfect; latter some- 

 times absent. Ambulacral ossicles frequently short and crowded, compressing the 

 primitively double series of tube-feet (always with suckers) into two zigzag, four, or 

 even six longiseries; adambulacral plates generally short and crowded (except Bris- 

 ingidae) equal in number to the ambulacrals; mouth plates frequently inconspicuous 



' Monograph of the Shallow-water Starfishes of the North Pacific Coast from the Arctic Ocean to California. Smithson. 

 Ian Institution. Harriman Alaska Series, vol. 14, 1914. This work is referred to in this report as "Shallow-water Starfishes, 1914." 

 1 Key to the orders of Asteroidea, see part 1, p. 16. 



