134 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Bay, nor from that general region. In fact the Albatross specimen is the only other 

 known. 



In his description of Asterias nanimensis Verrill has the plates erroneously 

 classified. 69 His upper marginal plates are the outermost row of abactinals. His 

 inferomarginal plates, which he describes as bearing a single spine, are really the 

 superomarginals. His diplacanthid peractinal plates are the true inferomarginals. 

 On page 187, under Distolasterias chelifera, the plates of this specimen are correctly 

 given. Here it is stated that no peractinal (that is actinal) plates are visible. 



In the type the fluted, stone-drill abactinal spines are arranged in quincunx, dor- 

 solaterally, although the regularity is disturbed. The fluting of the spines is rather 

 deep, five or six grooves to a spine. Many of the inferomarginal spines are shallowly 

 gouge-shaped at the tip in addition to being grooved. The prominence of the carinal 

 plates is unnatural and is due to the shrinking away of the integument. 



The example from the Straits of Fuca, the measurements of which are given in the 

 diagnosis, is well preserved and the mats of crossed pedicellariae surrounding the spines 

 are so dense that they are in close contact. The unguiculate straight pedicellariae 

 are few and are actinal in position. A large interradial pedicellaria is figured. (PI. 

 60, figs. 2, 2b, 2c.) The supermarginal plates of the proximal half of the ray usually 

 have a second smaller spine on the descending lobe of the plate. A similar varia- 

 tion is present in a specimen of chelifera from Bering Island. 



The lanceolate pedunculate straight pedicellariae, which are abundant on the 

 adambulacral and oral plates of chelifera, are very few in this specimen. This may 

 constitute an additional difference between the two races. (Compare pi. 62, figs. 

 2a and 3.) 



LETHASTERIAS NANIMENSIS CHELIFERA (Verrill) 



Plate 60, Figures 4, 4a-4e; Plate 61, Figures 1, \a-\g; Plate 62, Figures 1, la, 2, 2a; Plate 63; 



Plate 64, Figure 2 



Distolasterias chelifera Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes, 1914, p. 185, pi. 81, figs. 1, la-16; 

 pi. 110, figs. 1, 2. 



Diagnosis. — General appearance the same as that of L. nanimensis; differing in 

 having abundant abactinal, intermarginal, and actinal unguiculate, straight pedi- 

 cellariae with two or three longer curved claws or tines ; crossed pedicellariae with a 

 heavier terminal lip. Largest specimen, R 297 mm.; r 26 mm.; R = 11.4r; breadth 

 of ray at interbrachium, 30-32 mm.; at widest part, 40-45 mm.; width of furrow, 

 9-10 mm. 



Description. — The type of this subspecies, which I have examined, is a compara- 

 tively small specimen (R = 100 mm.). The following description is based upon large 

 examples, especially one with R 280 mm., from station 4787, and another with R 297 

 mm., from station 3282. (PI. 63, figs. 1 and 2.) In such large specimens the spines are 

 not arranged in definite series, nor in regular quincunx, nor is the carinal series dis- 

 tinguishable by regularity or size of spines, except sometimes on the outer part of 

 the ray. At the base of the ray one can count across the ray between the two series 

 of superomarginals, and exclusive of them, 15 to 20 spines, or in medium-sized exam- 

 ples, 10 to 18. The spines are therefore rather close set and are conspicuous because 

 of their dark gray or blackened color, which is accentuated by a zone of blackened 

 integument between the spine tip and the thick wreaths of crossed pedicellariae. 

 The spines are borne on a raised boss of the plate, are 1.7 to 2.2 mm. long in large 



»■ Shallow-water Starfishes, p. 105. 



