NEW STARFISHES FROM THE PACIFIC COAST II5 



LEPTYCHASTER ANOM ALUS Fisher, new species. 



Rays 5. R= 27 mm.; r = 17 mm.; 7?=i.6r. Breadth 

 of ray at base, 19 mm. 



In general form and ornamentation greatly resembling Par- 

 astropccten inermts Ludvvig. Disk broad, rays short, broad 

 and blunt ; interbrachial arcs shallow and wide ; abactinal sur- 

 face subplane, capable of slight inflation ; marginal plates con- 

 spicuous, devoid of enlarged spines or spinelets, but covered 

 with granules and granuliform spinelets; actinal intermediate 

 areas broad ; adambulacral plates with 3 or 4 furrow spines ; 

 small superambulacral plates present ; a very tiny anal pore 

 present. 



Abactinal paxillar area compact ; paxillas arranged in not very 

 regular oblique transverse rows at sides of ray ; without order 

 in median radial area and center of disk. Paxillar largest at 

 base of ray and in interradial areas decreasing conspicuously 

 in size toward center of disk and tip of ray ; larger at sides of 

 paxillar area than in mid-radial region. Paxillas with subcir- 

 cular bases having 5 or 6 very short irregular lobes, by which 

 neighboring plates touch, or even imbricate in center of disk and 

 mid-radial area. Papulae in 5's and 6's (except in center of 

 disk and along mid-radial lines where they are absent). Column 

 of paxilla about as high as breadth of base, flaring at summit, 

 the largest crowned with a coordinate noriform group of about 

 40 or 45 short, terete, often clavate, round-tipped spinelets ; of 

 these about one-half form a peripheral series and are a trifle 

 slenderer and longer. On the smaller paxillas the spinelets de- 

 crease markedly in size, but only slightly in number. 



Supermarginal plates, 15 in number from median interradial 

 line to extremity of ray form an arched bevel to border of abac- 

 tinal surface ; plates shorter than wide, but increase in length 

 on outer half of ray. Plates of both series separated by trans- 

 verse narrow deep fasciolar grooves and a narrow deep groove 

 (not so deep as transverse grooves) separates superomarginal 

 from inferomarginal series. Superomarginal plates covered 

 with short, terete, blunt granuliform spinelets, similar to but 

 larger than paxillar spinelets, becoming well-defined slender 



