112 VERRILL 



ASTERIAS KATHERIN^ Gray {non Perrier). 



Plate u, figures i, 2; plate lii, figure i (dorsal, large) ; plate Lxxxiii, figure i 



(details). 



Asterias katherina Gray, Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist., vi, p. 179, 1840 ; Synop- 

 sis, Genera and Species, p. 2, 1866 {non Perrier, 1875). 



Asteracanthion katherina Muller and Troschel, Syst Aster., p. ig, 1842 

 (translation from Gray). Dujardin et Hupe, Echinod., in Suites a 

 Buffon, p. 339, 1862 (translation). 



Gray's brief description of A. katherina is as follows: 



" Rays six or rarely five, nearly three times as long as the width 

 of the body ; back with scattered and crowded, blunt, rough-tipped 

 spines." He placed it in his section having the adambulacral spines 

 crowded " as if two- or three-rowed," with the back " netted," 

 ventral spines in two or three rows; lateral spines in a single row. 

 He gave the locality as " mouth of the Columbia River, Lady 

 Katherine Douglas." 



To this species, long misunderstood and little known, I refer with 

 confidence a good specimen obtained by Mr. A. Agassiz in the Gulf 

 of Georgia, about i860 (No. 1181, Mus. Comp. Zool. See plates 

 LI, LII.) It agrees in all respects with Gray's brief description. 



Rays six, moderately stout, evenly convex above and regularly 

 tapered ; larger radius, 85 mm. ; shorter, 18 mm. ; ratio, i : 4.72. 



The dorsal spines are very numerous, mostly rather small, none 

 large. Smaller ones clavate; larger ones somewhat capitate; 

 arranged crowdedly without any regular order, but reticulate or in 

 short rows in many places, both on the disk and rays, not acervate 

 and not conspicuously diverse in size, though many on the transverse 

 ossicles are quite small. The median dorsals are like the rest and 

 do not form an evident row. 



The superomarginals are a little longer and more cylindric, obtuse 

 or slightly clavate, placed in a regular row, one to each plate. 



The inferomarginals are quite similar and stand mostly one to a 

 plate, but occasionally there are two to a plate. 



The interactinal spines are shorter and stouter than the marginals, 

 cylindric or slightly clavate, obtuse or pinched at the tip, nearly 

 smooth. They form two close rows, or three in some places, proxi- 

 mally, crowded between the inferomarginals and adambulacrals, 

 with very small papular areas around and between them. 



They apparently stand on two close rows of interactinal plates, 

 for there are small papular pores between the rows. The subactinal 

 row extends in most cases only about half the length of the ray. 



