22 



BULLETIN 70, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 mens of Asterias amurensis examined — Continued 



tlon 



3539 

 3M7 



3777 



] ility 



olnity ,>f Prlbilol Islands. 



ids 



Nortbaul ol rjnalaska 



I M[ Kamchatka 



Norton Bound, 54 i-'' N , 102° 25' W... 

 Cape i burns, Uaska, \ rctic Ocean . . 



' Sound 



and ? 



SI MIohHflb, 



i land, Bristol Bay. 



Qiuliuk llnrlior, Unalaska 



i lands 

 iglns 



Petropavlovsk, Kamchatka 



Port < ka 



Amur Province, Asia 





Fatkoim 

 59 

 67 

 51 

 13 

 17 



N'nture of bottom 



Orcen mud, sand 



....do 



Fine black sand 



Sticky soft green mud. 



Stony. 



Bottom 

 temper- 

 ature 



o p 

 38 



38.9 

 45 



Num- 

 ber of 

 speci- 

 mens 



Remarks 



No. 15809. 



Henry D. Woolfe, 



anomala. 

 No. 7621, Murdoch. 

 No. 10999. 

 No. 2821, L. M 



Turner. 

 W. H. Dall. 



Do. 

 No. 3452. 

 W. H. Dall. 

 Albatross, 1906. 

 Stanford University. 

 Cotype, Copenhagen 



Museum. 



i Low ■ 



Remarks. — The most conspicuous points of difference between A. rubens and A. 

 amurensis have already been listed. I have examined specimens of rubens from 

 Iceland, Faroe Islands, Dublin Bay, Ireland, Port Erin, Isle of Man, Farsund, Norway, 

 and Kristineburg, west coast of Sweden. The species A. rubens, like amurensis, is 

 extremely variable, and certain variations approach fairly close to amurensis. The 

 general run of specimens, however, is rather easily distinguished. A. rubens 

 resembles more nearly A. amurensis rollestoni of Japan, but I have never observed 

 specimens of rollestoni as large as rubens grows to be. 



It is to be noted that the furrow spine of alternate adambulacral plates is, in 

 rubens, advanced into the furrow, as in amurensis. The genus Allasterias, for A. 

 rathbuni (nearly typical amurensis) was based upon this character and consequently 

 becomes a synonym of Asterias, ss. 



Parasterias albertensis Verrill, 1914, is said to have been taken at Albert Bay, 

 British Columbia (no. 5537, Yale Museum). I have examined the type which is a 

 small Asterias having the characteristic arrangement of adambulacral spines and 

 marginal plajtes. The specimen is small (R 54 mm.) and as is well shown by Verrill 's 

 figure (1914, pi. 57, fig. 1), the abactinal skeleton is rather irregularly reticulated, an 

 irregular carina] series being clearly discernible. The abactinal spinelets are mostly 

 one to a plate, short, slightly tapered, blunt with rough tips. Supermarginal spine- 

 lets, faintly capitate, proximully three, distally two, somewhat longer and stouter 

 than abactinals; inferomarginals two, longer and slenderer, tapered; sometimes one 

 or two isolated intermarginals. A.dambulacrals on proximal part of ray alternately 

 two and three spined; distally, diplacanthid. The triplacanthid plates have the 

 mne, spine set deeper in the furrow. Abactinal straight pedicellariae small, numer- 

 ous, the larger about 1.5 the length of the crossed; actinal, large, numerous, similar to 

 the slenderer sorts of typical amurensis. 



