156 A. E. Yerrill — Revision Genera and Species of Starfishes. 



List of Specimens of Goniaster Americanys taken hy the Albatross, 

 « in the West Indies. 



Station 2315, 37 fathoms, No. 10071, 1, young. 



" 2316,50 " 10076, 6, young. 



" 2318, 45 " 10821, 1, very large. 



" 2318, 45 " 10876, 2, half-grown. 



" 2363, 21 " 10618, 1, large. 



2370, 25 " 7, young. 



" 2372, 27 " 3, young. 



" 2373,25 " 10337, 1, large; U, young. 



" 2374, 26 " 10820, 6, young and half-grown. 



" 2374, 26 " 10340, 5, young. 



" 2406, 26 " 10459, 3, half-grown. 



" 2407,24 " 6, young and old. 



Sjyecimens examined from the Blake Expedition. 

 a. Station 32, 95 fathoms. 



c. 

 d. 



Goniaster Africanus Verrill. 



Goniaster Africanus Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. ii, p. 131, 1871. 

 Plate XXV. Figures 1, 3. 



Perrier (Revis. 1876, p. 24) united this species and G. Ameri- 

 canus with G. cxispidatus of the East Indies. He showed very well, 

 by his comparison of a large series of specimens, that the number 

 and precise form of the dorsal spines and marginal plates are vari- 

 able in specimens from each region and cannot be depended upon to 

 separate the species. 



It has long been known that the number of marginal plates in all 

 starfishes increases with age, and that their shaj^e also varies with 

 age, also that the spines increase with age. 



Perrier, however, did not make careful comparisons of the much 

 more important characters to be derived from the size and character 

 of the granules, tubercles, and spines of the plates ; presence or 

 absence and shape of pedicellariaj ; form and character of the adam- 

 bulacral spines; size and form of the small ossicles and granules 

 between the abactinal plates. 



In all these characters G. Africanus differs decidedly from G. 

 Aniericanus, if the numerous specimens of the latter that I have 



