SHALLOW-WATER STARFISHES 263 



Ctenaster L. Acassiz, Prod., p. 192, 1835 (type, C. minutus). 



Asteriscus {pars) Muller and Troschel, 1840, p. 104; Syst. Aster., p. 39, 1842. 



Asterina (restricted) Verrill, Amcr. Journ. Science, xxxv. May, 1913, p. 481. 



The genus Asterina should be restricted to those species closely 

 allied to A. gibbosa (Penn.) of southern Europe, the type. The writer 

 has proposed several new generic groups for the diverse species 

 usually referred to Asterina.^ The only species found on the north- 

 west coast belongs to the restricted genus Patiria. Other genera 

 are found farther south, and may occur off San Diego. 



'The classification adopted (op. cit., 1913) for those genera most nearly 

 allied to Asterina is as follows : 

 A. Disk and rays depressed, margins thin, the plates small. 

 BB. Principal dorsal plates all imbricated. 



C. Ventral or interactinal plates bear a fan of two to eight, usually webbed 

 spines. 



D. Dorsal plates of papular areas spinulated, nearly all of one kind, without 

 large groups of small intervening ossicles. 



E. Two-bladed pedicellariae are present on dorsal plates. Asterina Nardo 

 (restricted). Type, A. gibbosa (Penn.). Europe. 



EE. Pedicellariae are lacking. Asterinides VeTriW. Type, A. folium (Lutk.). 

 W. Indies; Bermuda; Florida. 



DD. Dorsal plates of papular areas are mostly lobed and notched, with a 

 curved or lunate crest bearing fine spiiiw'"; between them are clusters of 

 many very small spinulated ossicles. 



F. Pedicellariae are lacking. Patiria Gray, 1840. Type, P. coccinea Gray. 

 S. .'\frica (monotypic). Not Patiria of Perrier nor of Sladen. 



FF. Pedicellariae are present on the dorsal plates. Papular areas difTer- 

 entiated. Enoplopatiria Verrill. Type, E. marginata (Hupe) =£. brasiliensis 

 (Liitk.). Brazil; W. Indies; W. Africa. 



CC. Ventral plates are without fans of spines. 



G. Ventral plates have a single spine ; sometimes two. Dorsal plates nearly 

 as in Patiria. Patiriella Verrill. Type, P. regularis Ver. New Zealand. 



GG. Ventral plates have a fascicle or cluster of spines. 



H. Ventral plates have a fascicle of slender spines. Asterinopsis Verrill. 

 Type, A. peniciUaris (Lam.). Indian and Pacific Oceans; Australia. 



HH. Ventral plates have a central cluster of many short spinules or gran- 

 ules; rays longer; rounded. Callopatiria Verrill. Type, C. bellula Sla. 



BB. Principal dorsal plates finely spinulated, not all imbricated ; thin, trans- 

 versely elongated, with many small intervening ossicles. Plates rest on an 

 alveolar structure, tubular interradially distally. Ventral plates, toward mouth, 

 have an irregular group of webbed spines ; distally changing to a regular comb 

 of about three. Desmopatiria Verrill. Type, D. ffexilis Ver. Chile (?). 



AA. Disk and rays not much depressed ; rays longer, rounded ; margins not 

 thin and subacute ; larger dorsal plates not all imbricated. Here are placed 

 Parapatiria Fisher. Type, P. crassa (Gray). Allopatiria Verrill. Type, A. 

 ocellifera (Gray). 



