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BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



much dependance should not be placed upon this criterion. In Coscinasterias 

 calamaria the odontophores are often irregular. Sometimes there are two widely- 

 separated pits which are the articulation points of two plates, or there is only one pit 

 with the faint imprint of others. In all probability species which usually have two 

 pits will vary to one by the simple coalescence of the two. 



An arrangement of the genera in columns in order to suggest relationships is 

 given below. Those in a column are believed to be rather more nearly related than 

 are two genera in different columns. According to this scheme Stylasterias and Dis- 

 tolasterias are very far from Orthasterias. However Stylasterias and Distolasterias 

 are not so closely related as Sclerasterias and Marthasterias. 



Genus STYLASTERIAS Verrill, emended 



Stylasterias Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes, etc., 1914, subgenus, pp. 48, 65, 179; genus 

 p. 50. — Type Asterias forreri de Loriol. — Fisher, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, vol. 12, 

 1923, p. 256. 



Diagnosis. — Coscinasteriinae having the inner as well as the outer inferomarginal 

 spine armed with a pad of pedicellariae ; secondary oblong ossicles between consec- 

 utive carinal and superomarginal plates; rudimentary, spineless actinal plates; 

 unusually large crossed pedicellariae, having two conspicuous terminal teeth on each 

 jaw; diplacanthid adambulacrals. All primary plates spiniferous; one or two series 

 of four or five lobed dorsolateral plates forming triangular and lozenge-shaped skeletal 

 meshes by means of connecting slender ossicles; mouth-angle stout, with two pairs 

 of contiguous postoral adambulacral plates; marginal plates without trace of a special- 

 ized area of hyaline beads; ambulacral ossicles not severely compressed; straight 

 pedicellariae large, wedge-shaped, with several curved interlocking teeth; not fis- 

 siparous. 



Remarks. — -The crossed pedicellariae alone will serve to identify this genus which 

 appears to occupy a rather isolated position. It approaches Distolasterias more nearly 

 than any other group but differs in respect to the secondary carinals and supero- 

 marginals, and in having much larger crossed pedicellariae. Basically the design of 

 these is similar in the two genera but the characteristics are greatly exaggerated in 

 Stylasterias. 



All species of Stylasterias described since 1914 belong to other genera. 



STYLASTERIAS FORRERI (de Loriol) 



Plate 44; Plate 45; Plate 46; Plate 47, Figures 1-3; Plates 48-50; Plate 51, Figure 1; Plate 53, 



Figure 5 



Asterias forreri de Loriol, Notes pour servir a l'etude des Echinodermes II, Recueil zoolo- 

 gique Suisse, vol. 4, No. 3, 1887, p. 401, pi. 18, figs. 1, la-?; not Jennings, 1907. 



Asterias (Urasterias) forcipulata Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 28, 1909, p. 67; Amer. 

 Nat., vol. 43, 1909, p. 542. 



Orthasterias forreri Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes, etc., 1914, p. 179, pi. 65, fig. 1; pi. 

 66, fig. 1, 2; pi. 70, fig. 7; pi. 77, figs. 1-ld; pi. 80, figs. 1-le. 



