ASTEROIDEA OF NORTH PACIFIC AND ADJACENT WATERS— FISHER 129 



as a regular series, and they appear to be entirely absent at base of ray where the 

 inferomarginals abut against the adambulacrals. There are two stout inferomarginals 

 more or less webbed together basally, the outer with a thick tuft of pediceUariae 

 which occasionally involves the inner. The superomarginal, dorsolateral, and carinal 

 plates form five regular longiseries, their acicular, nearly equal, spines with thick 

 stoles of pediceUariae, which toward the end of ray nearly touch. The spine sheaths 

 and the integument covering the plates is thick and tough. The alternate carinal 

 plates are without lateral lobes. Adoral carina narrow with six pairs of con tig. 

 postoral plates, the plates of the first four pairs longer than the succeeding. 



The form of the straight pediceUariae and the behavior of the actinal plates (if 

 not confined to this specimen) appear to be peculiar. 



C. muricata Verrill is perfectly distinct from gemmifera. It has large straight 

 pediceUariae scattered over the body and a well-developed series of spiniferous acti- 

 nals. I have examined the type. 



Specimens of true calamaria from the western Indian Ocean should be compared 

 with Australian and New Zealand examples. 



Subgenus Stolasterias Sladen. (Lytaster Perrier, Polyasterias Perrier.) 

 Plate 42, Figures 2, 2o-2c, Figure 3; Plate 43, Figure 4 



Diagnosis. — Differing from Coscinasterias, ss, in having all carinal plates four- 

 lobed; mouth plates broader, with two or three contiguous pairs of adambulacral 

 plates behind the mouth plates. Type, Asterias tenuispina Lamarck. 



Northern Hemisphere: Japan, Hawaiian Islands, Mediterranean, eastern 

 Atlantic, Brazil, West Indies. 



There are two known species: C. acutispina from Japan and the western part 

 of the Hawaiian Group 51 and the well known C. tenuispina. 



I examined the seven small types of Lytaster inaequalis Perrier at the Museum 

 d'Histoire NatureUe and found them to be very young specimens of Coscinasterias 

 tenuispina. Among other features the crossed pediceUariae agree with those of the 

 adult. 



Fissiparity or voluntary splitting of the whole, animal into two is characteristic 

 of Stolasterias even into adult life. In Coscinasterias it appears to be confined to 

 young individuals and is not practiced in adult life. 



Genus MARTHASTERIAS Jullien 



Plate 42, Figure 4; Plate 43, Figure 6 



Marthasterias Jullien, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1878, p. 141. Type M. foliacea= Asterias 



glacialis O. F. Muller. — Fisher, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7. vol. 17, 1900, p. 575; ser. 9. 



vol. 12, 1923, p. 256. — Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes 191 



Stolasterias Perrier (not Sladen), ExpcU Trav. et T&lism., 1894, pp. 108, 109. Type, 



A. glacialis. 



Diagnosis. — Nonfissiparous, normally five rayed, Coscinasteriinae with mona- 



canthid adambulacral plates, pediceUariae on only the outer of the two inferomarginal 



spines, and one series of small spineless actinal plates hidden by skin. Dorsolateral 



skeleton normally simple and fairly regular, the dorsolateral papular areas in two 



" Fisher, Sea Stars of Tropical Central Pacific, Bull. Risbop Mus. No. 27, 1925, p. S2; Ocean cCure) Id., Pearl and Hermes 1 



