94 BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



It is apparent thai Brandl was describing a small Kamchatkan sea star with 

 ais tapered pointed rays in which the small, numerous, truncate capitate spines were 

 arranged in six or seven sub-regular longiseries. This diagnosis agrees with the 

 species under discussion. On some specimens the adambulacral spines appear as 

 if three ranked owing to the posture of the spines. The furrow spine of diplacan- 

 thid plates is directed obliquely over furrow, the other obliquely toward the actinal 

 spines. These form the inner and outer series, while the middle series is formed by 

 the upright spine of the alternate monacanthid plates. 



Verrill in commenting upon Brandt's description, which he considers indefinite 

 and vague, renders ''series svbregulares," "subangular series." This error obscures 

 Brandt's meaning. It serins to me that the description is definite enough. Moreover 

 there is no Kamchatkan species, other than the one under discussion, which has six 

 rays and the abactinal spinelets in somewhat regular longiseries. From Brandt's 

 comments in MiddendorfPs Keise (1851, p. 32) he apparently had specimens which 

 had been dried without much prior preservation. Grube in fact says (1857, p. 24) 

 that his description seemed to have been made from only dry material. 



LEPTASTERIAS CAMTSCHATICA DISPAR (Verrill) 



Plate 42, Figures 2, 3, 4; Plate 49, Figures 2-6; Plate 50, Figure 1 



Leptasterias (?) dispar Verrill, Shallow-water Starfishes, 1914, p. 142, pi. 16, fig. 7, type; 

 pi. 106, fig. 3 (as acervata). 



This polymorphic race is the representative of Leptasterias camtschatica on the 

 Aleutian chain, whence it extends as far as Kodiak Island. It is found in Bering 

 Sea at the Pribilof Islands. The name of the race is derived from one of its formae, 

 originally described as a distinct species. 



Three phases or formae have been distinguished — nitida, nesiotis, and dispar, of 

 which the first is the equivalent of the common form of L. camtscliatica camtschatica. 

 In the Asiatic race only one form has been observed. 



These three phases are morphologically equivalent to formae found in widely" 

 dissimilar species. For example they correspond, in the order named, to Pisaster 

 ochracens f. ochraceus, f. corifertas, f. nodiferus; or to Evasterias troschelii f. alveolata, 

 f. acanthostoma, f. troschelii. 



The small type variety of f. dispar does not resemble f. nitida (which is the 

 equivalent of L. camtschatini nimtschatica). Therefore only forma nitida is useful 

 for direct comparison with true camtschatica, since no equivalent of dispar is known 

 fin- the Latter species. 



I low ever distinct dispar may appear to be when only extreme forms are compared, 

 there exists a prettj complete series of intermediate specimens connecting it with 



tida. There is available (lie alternative of regarding dispar as a distinct species 

 which lias freely crossed with nitida. Dispar has been taken on the outer part of 

 the Aleutian chain where nitida has not yet been found (but where it may never- 

 theless occur). There seems to be no necessity of invoking hybridism, for quite as 

 dissimilar formae are known in other species of the genus, for example, Leptasterias 

 polaris acervata. 



