114 



BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



This group ranges from Puget Sound to southern Alaska and probably inter- 

 grades with siderea which it much resembles. It also suggests a coarse spined form 

 of L. aequalis with indefinite abaetinal longiseries of spinelet groups. The spinelets 

 are like those of siderea in size and structure. 



Straight pedicellariae longer than broad, triangular lanceolate or lanceolate 

 ovate, similar to those of siderea. Crossed pedicellariae (pi. 44, fig. 3), with the 

 lateralmosl tooth of terminal lip slightly enlarged. 



1 have examined Verrill's type which is figured (1914, pi. 58, fig. 1). The 

 specimens from Forrester Island resemble the type, which is said to be from either 

 Comox or Sooke, Vancouver Island. Practically all the other specimens I have seen 

 from the Puget Sound region, including those in the type series of hexactis, are small 

 (K 10 to 26 mm.), and easily confused with small L. aequalis. (PI. 51, figs. 5 to 9.) 

 It is a hopeless task to differentiate such confused forms by words. However, these 

 small plena differ from aequalis in having fewer, coarse spinelets, the coordinated 

 groups being more irregular; or else the abaetinal spinelets are arranged in a close 

 reticulum. Both phases differ from regularis in the more numerous abaetinal spine- 

 lets and the presence of three to five superomarginal spinelets in an angular series 

 or a group. (Puget Sound; Alert Bay, Vancouver Island.) Two or three specimens 

 of Stimpson's type series of Tiexactis (1368 a, o) stand between these depauperate 

 •plena and the actual type specimens, while one (1368 d), is intermediate with regularis. 



Type of forma plena. — Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa. 



Type locality ojjorma plena. — "Sooke or Comox, B. C." (label of type specimen). 



Distribution. — Puget Sound region, Vancouver Island, and southern Alaska. 



Type oj Leptasteriae hexactis. — No. 1368, U.S.N.M., Dr. C. B. Kennerly. 



Type locality. — Puget Sound, Wash. 



Distribution. — ^humagin Islands to Cape Flattery, Wash., chiefly intertidal; to 

 25 fathoms in the Puget Sound region. 



Specimens examined.- — Three hundred and twenty-two. 



Specimens of Leplasterias hexactis examined 



' Borne specimens more or less intermediate between aspera and regularis; not eitremes of either forma. 

 ' See note under siderea: somewhat intermediate with regularis. 



