NO. 1799 NOMENCLATURE OF STARFISHES FISHER 89 



DiPLASTERiAS Perrier (Compt. Rend., CVI, No. ii, 1888, 765; 

 Mission Scientif. du Cap Horn. VI. Zoologie, Echino- 

 dermes, 1891, ']']), type. Asten'as siilcifcra (Perrier). first 

 species. 



In the first citation the name is mentioned so casually that it must 

 in all probability be disregarded as a noiiicii iiiidiiin. Perrier, in an 

 appendix on page 160 of the second reference, gives precedence to 

 Sladen's Cosmasterias (type, Astcrias snlcifera), which was pub- 

 lished while Perrier's paper was in press. Thus Perrier relegated 

 his own genus to synonymy. The group was a very artificial one, 

 and, strictly speaking, was not coextensive with Cosmasterias. But 

 by reason of its type the name, at least, can be restricted to a definite 

 aggregation of species, namely, the Cosmasterias of Sladen. This 

 name, however, is long antedated by Pisaster Miiller and Troschel,^ 

 type, Asferias ochracea Brandt. I have examined Asterias snlcifera 

 (Perrier), and find that it is a Pisaster. as indicated by the peculiar 

 large pedicellariae and numerous rows of actinal intermediate plates. 

 Podasterias Perrier (type, Diplasterias liitkeiii Per.-) also seems to 

 be typical Pisaster, making a third synonym. Since Perrier him- 

 self repudiated Diplasterias, the name should then and there have 

 died a painless death. Koehler, however, has resurrected it for two 

 new species in his report on the echinoderms of the Expedition 

 Antarctique Francaise ( 1906 , and again in Zoologischer Anzeiger, 

 Sept. 17, 1907, 141. This use of the name is incorrect. 



GoNiODON Perrier (Expeditions Scientifique du Travailleur et 

 du Talisman, Echinodermes, 1894, 244). t\pe, Pentagoiias- 

 ter dilatatiis Perrier. 



This name is antedated, and therefore invalidated, by Goniodon 

 C. L. Herrick, Denison Univ. Scientif. Laboratories, Bull. Ill 

 (April), 1888, 4; type, G. okioeiisis, a mollusc. Goniodon Perrier 

 may be called Diplodontias. 



^Archiv f. Naturgesch. 6 Jahrg., Bd. i. 1S40, 367; System der Asteriden, 

 1842, 20. Type Astcracanthion margaritifcr M. & T. (= Asterias ochracea 

 Brandt). This name was used by Prof. L. Agassiz on display labels in the 

 Museum cf Comparative Zoology, Cambridge. The reference, in A. Agassiz's 

 "North American Starfishes," to the genus Pisaster "as recognized by Profes- 

 sor Agassiz" probably refers to these labels, as I find nothing in the latter's 

 writings bearing on the subject. 



* In Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., vni, t86i. 265, Stimpson described from the 

 Cra .t of Oregon Asterias liifkenii. which is a Pisaster. thus antedating Per- 

 rier's name. 



