ASTEROIDEA OF NORTH PACIFIC AND ADJACENT WATERS— FISHER 127 



Diagnosis.— Differing from sertulifera in having the first adambulacral plate 

 subequal to the second and in the sharp decrease in the height of the superomarginal 

 plates from the fifth or sixth toward the first; ventral lobe of proximal superomarginal 

 plates broader. 



Discussion— Only the type is known. It is something of a problem and I feel 

 that in all probability it is only an extreme variant or perhaps the representative of a 

 distinct forma of sertulifera. The specimen, which I have examined, measures R 82 

 mm.; r 9 mm.; r = 9 r. The difference in the proximal marginal plates and in the 

 first pair of adambulacral plates exists, however. The status of the form can not be 

 definitely estimated until sufficient material is at hand to determine the range of 

 variation. 



I am even in doubt concerning the type-locality. Verrill states that the type 

 is from "off San Francisco." He gives the type-locality of gonolena as "off south- 

 ern California." 49 Yet in part 2 (p. 136, pi. 67) the type is said to bo from "off San 

 Francisco." Both types were presented by Prof. W. E. Putter and not improbably 

 came from the vicinity of San Diego or of San Pedro, where Professor Putter is known 

 to have explored extensively. 



The straight and crossed pedicellariae are like those of sertulifera in size and 

 detail. The intermarginal straight pedicellariae are numerous. The superomarginal 

 spines are pretty regularly on alternate plates. The dorsolateral spines are in two 

 fairly complete series for two-thirds the length of ray, after which there is a single 

 series practically to the tip. They frequently form an arcuate transverse series with 

 the carinals and superomarginals. The actinal spines reach nearly to the middle of 

 the ray, and the plates a short distance further. The first three or four adambulacral 

 plates are monacanthid, and near the end of the ray for a very short distance they are 

 alternately monacanthid and diplacanthid, then monacanthid. In the ventral 

 interradial channel are 14 to 20 small lanceolate, compressed, straight pedicellariae 

 and a cluster of smaller ones on the outer apical oral spine, as in sertulifera. The 

 apical oral spines stressed by Verrill in Key (p. 64) are about as long as the median 

 suture of the plate and are not longer than in sertulifera, although rather flatter than 

 usual. They are about the same as in a large six-rayed specimen of sertulifera in the 

 Stanford University collection labeled, probably erroneously, Half Moon Bay, Calif. 

 (PI. 56, figs, le, 1/.) 



Professor Verrill placed californica in his subgenus Orthasterias as contrasted 

 with the subgenus Stylasterias, under which gonolena ( = sertulifera) was described. 

 This classification was based primarily upon the presence of actinal spines in califor- 

 nica and their supposed absence in gonolena. But, as I have shown, they arc present 

 in sertulifera, even in tho cotype of gonolena. 



The specimen of sertulifera alleged to be from Half Moon Bay (a short distance 

 south of the entrance to San Francisco Bay) is entirely unlike the typo of califon 

 in respect to the first adambulacral plate and the proximal superomarginals. The 

 latter have especially long and rather narrow ventral lobes, as in the typical Lower 

 California examples. Large spatulate pedicellariae, with unusually broad jaws and 

 10 to 12 teeth are numerous in the intermarginal channels. (PI. 55, figs, la.) If 

 this locality is really authentic, which I doubt, then sertulifera in a typical form 

 ranges at least to central California. 



" Shallow-water Starfishes, 1914, p. 185. 



