WEST INDIAN STARFISHES 31 



Genus Coronaster Perrier. 



Coronaster Perrier, Ann. Sci. Nat. Zool., vol. xix, No. 8, pp. 5, 9, 1885; 

 Exped. Trav. et Talism., p. 92, 1894. (Type, C. parfaiti.) Sladen, 

 op. cit., pp. xxxix, 592, 1889. 



Delicate starfishes with a small disk and numerous slender 

 rays, covered with long, slender spines in radial rows. The 

 dorsal skeleton is weak, made up of the rows of median and 

 superomarginal plates, connected together by slender transverse 

 ossicles. Each plate of the longitudinal rows usually bears one 

 slender spine. 



Both rows of marginal plates well developed and spiniferous. 

 No interactinal plates. Adambulacrals diplacanthid. Large, 

 felipedal, dermal major pedicellariae occur above and below. 

 Minor pedicellarige form large circumspinal wreaths, borne on 

 contractile sheaths. Tube-feet are relatively large, in two rows, 

 not crowded. A pair of rather large peroral spines on the mar- 

 gins of the oblong jaws, with groups of oral marginal pedicel- 

 larise. 



Coronaster briareus Verrill, 1914a, p. 49. 



Asterias briareus Verrill, Brief Cont. to Zool., No. 50, Amer. Journal 

 Sci., vol. xxiii, p. 220, 1882; Notice of Rem. Maine Fauna, in Annual 

 Rep. Com'r. of Fish and Fisheries for 1882, p. 659, 1884, ditto for 

 1883, p. 540; Amer. Jour. Science, ser. 3, vol. xlix, p. 209, 1895. 



Starfish "near Asterias volsellata," Nutting, Narrative Bahama Exped., 

 p. 168, fig. 3, 1895. 



Plate i; figures 1, 2. Plate ix, figures 4 — 4c. 



Disk small,rays slender, elongated. Rays variable in number, 

 ten to twelve in the larger specimens, one of the larger has the 

 radii 8'"°^ and 76°^ ; ratio 1 :9.5. 



The dorsal skeleton is openly reticulated. There is a marked 

 medial radial carina, with larger plates and longer spines. The 

 marginal plates also form ridges. These five rows of plates are 

 connected by slender transverse ossicles, leaving large rectangu- 

 lar papular areas, with numerous papulas in clusters. 



The dorsal and marginal spines are long, slender, acute, not 

 very near together. A few arise, also, from the transverse ossi- 

 cles. 



The spines are all much alike in form and size. They bear 

 large dense wreaths of small minor pedicellariae, usually on a 



