WEST INDIAN STARFISHES 101 



covering of granulose dermis and two to four short, thick, conical 

 spines that each one usually bears. Their granules are rather 

 coarse, unequal, polygonal, and closely packed. Intermingled 

 with the granules are small bivalve pedicellariae of sizes similar 

 to the adjacent granules. 



The inferomarginal plates are similar in size, and are confined 

 to the aetinal side, except close to the tips of the rays. They 

 are granulated in the same way as the upper ones, and each 

 usually bears a cluster of three to five or more short conical 

 spines, the larger ones smaller than those of the superomarginals 

 and quite similar to those of the interactinal plates. 



The interactinal plates are numerous, forming large areas, ex- 

 tending well out on the rays. They are arranged in simple 

 divergent rows, the first rows subparallel to the adambulacral 

 plates, but also forming single oblique rows, each one coiTespond- 

 ing to a single adambulacral plate, but two usually correspond- 

 ing to a single inferomarginal plate. They and their sutures are 

 covered with large granules and bivalve pedicellarige coarser than 

 those on the dorsal side, and each usually bears also a central 

 group of two, three, or more, short, stout, blunt, unequal spines. 



Their pedicellariae mostly have an ovate or elliptical basal 

 raised cup, which encloses the basal part of the two wide and 

 short valves. They are larger than those of the dorsal side, with 

 relatively wide valves. 



The adambulacral plates have a marginal series, usually of 

 three or four, small, flat or angular blunt spines, and the aetinal 

 side bears one or two short, stout, conical spines, surrounded by 

 coarse granules and many raised bivalve pedicellariae. 



The ambulacral feet are large and strong, with large suckers. 



The colors, in life, are various, and seem to differ in different 

 localities. According to Nutting its colors in the Bahamas are 

 often deep red relieved by the bright yellow color of the spines. 

 "Others were various shades of red, deepening into a rich 

 maroon, alternating with orange and yellow" (op. cit., p. 53). 

 According to A. H. Verrill those that he saw at Samana Bay, 

 San Domingo, were green or greenish in color, while those that 

 he saw at Dominica Island were yellow or orange-yellow, vary- 

 ing to yellowish brown. According to Clark (op. cit., p. 5, 1898) 

 it is "orange-red of some shade" in Kingston harbor, Jamaica, 



