ASTEROIDEA OF NORTH PACIFIC AND ADJACENT WATERS — FISHER 105 



Distribution. — Japan Sea (Peter the Great Bay) ; Japan; Hong Kong. Common 

 in Peter the Great Bay on muddy bottom, to 15 fathoms; off Japan, to 81 fathoms. 



Specimens examined. — Peter the Great Bay, Dr. A. Djakonov, two; Mororan, 

 Hokkaido, two; Ayukawa, Japan, one; Hong Kong, China (U. S. Nat. Mus.), two; 

 Albatross stations 3773 and 3774, off Honshu, Japan, 78-81 fathoms, three. 



Remarks. — D. nipon differs from D. stichantha in having larger crossed pedi- 

 cellariae provided with longer terminal fangs (pi. 60, figs. 2a and Id); in lacking the 

 unguiculate straight pedicellariae of stichantha; in having less regularly arranged 

 dorsolateral plates. I have compared specimens of D. tricolor directly with Japanese 

 material of nipon and am not able to differentiate the two forms. The Hong Kong 

 specimens greatly extend the known range of tins species. Their crossed pedicellariae 

 average slightly larger and the spines a little heavier than in northern examples. 



Genus SCLERASTERIAS Perrier, emended 



Stolaslerias, part, Sladen, Challenger Asteroidea, 18S9, pp. 563, 583. Type Asterias tenui- 

 spina Lamarck, by designation. — Perrier, Result, camp. sci. du Prince de Monaco, 

 fasc. 11, 1896, p. 37. — Ludwig, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 32, 1905, p. 221. 



Scleraslerias Perrier Comptes-rend., vol. 112, No. 21, May 5, 1891, p. 1227. Type, S. 

 guernei, monotypic. Nominal reference on p. 1226 is "Sclerasler Guernei." Result, 

 camp. sci. du Prince de Monaco, fasc. 11, 1896, p. 35. — Fisher, Bull. Inst. Oceano- 

 graphique, No. 444, 1924, p. 2. 



Distolasterias Perrier, part, Fisher, Starfishes of the Hawaiian Islands, 1906, p. 1105; Star- 

 fishes of the Philippine Seas, etc., 1919, p. 487 (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 100, vol. 3); Ann. 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, vol. 17, 1906, p. 574. 



Orthasterias part, Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes, etc., 1914, pp. 48, 168, 370. 



Stylasterias part, Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes, etc., 1914, p. 48. 



Eustolasterias Fisher, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 9, vol. 12, Aug. 1923, p. 255. Type, 

 Coseinasterias (Distolasterias) euplecta Fisher. 



Diagnosis. — Coscinasteriinae differing from Distolasterias in lacking crossed 

 pedicellariae on the inner inferomarginal spine; in the presence of an inferomarginal 

 web; in the restriction of tho dorsolateral plates to at most a single adradial series; 

 in the presence of one terminal lateral enlarged tooth on the outer face of each jaw of 

 the crossed pedicellariae (instead of one enlarged tooth on each side of each jaw). 

 Adambulacrals diplacanthid; rays pentagonal in section; dorsolateral skeleton 

 regular, consisting in the adult of two regular series of transverse ossicles overlapping 

 about midway between the carinal and superomarginal plates; superimposed on these 

 overlapping ends, the three or four lobed dorsolateral plates form a single series 

 (often late in developing); dorsolateral spines in a single series, usually poorly 

 developed, sometimes absent; superomarginal plates large with a broad descending 

 lobe; the surface of plate with a circumscribed area of tiny hyaline, beadhke pro- 

 tuberances (pi. 56, fig. 2); alternate superomarginals spineless; beyond base of ray, 

 alternate carinals, usually spineless; outer scries of inferomarginal spines united by a 

 more or less evident retractile emarginate web; mouth angle relatively primitive with 

 one or two pairs of contiguous postoral adambulacral plates; no longitudinal, inter- 

 mediate ossicles in carinal or superomarginal series; spines large, mostly solitary, 

 spikelike, the abactinal and superomarginal encircled by a wreath of crossed pedicel- 

 lariae, and the outer inferomarginal spine by a half wreath; a scries of small actinal 



