222 A. £J. Verrill — Hevision Genera and Sjyecies of Starjishes. 



Upper marginal plates small, irregular in form and arrangement, 

 scarcely distinct from the abactinal plates, except close to the end 

 of the rays, and without marginal clusters of spinules. Lower mar- 

 ginal plates prominent, transversely oblong, depressed, the sharp 

 outer edge bearing a regular horizontal row of four to six rough, 

 blunt spinules, usually four or five on the proximal and five or six on 

 the distal ones ; on the upper side of the same plates there is a 

 secondary row of the same number of much smaller and shorter 

 spinules. 



Actinal plates evident, irregular in size and form, the smaller dis- 

 tal ones roundish; the more central ones elliptical, transversely elon- 

 gated, and bearing about three crescentric rows of spinules ; one to 

 three bear a single, small, central spine in each area. In one speci- 

 men there are two of these spines. The adambulacral plates, near 

 the mouth, bear a single slender inner spine, on the edge of the 

 groove, and two stouter ones, side by side, on the actinal surface ; in 

 the middle part of the groove the spines are placed obliquely, and 

 distally the three spines gradually come to stand nearly in a single 

 transverse row, and they also become longer and more crowded. 



Taken in the West Indies by the Blake Expedition and by the 

 Albatross, in fathoms. 



Family STICHASTERID-ffi Perrier, 1885. 



Stichasteridce Sladen, 1889, p. 430. Perrier 1894, p. 128. 1896, pp. 25-27. 

 Verrill, 1895, p. 206. 



Stephanasterias Verrill, 1871. Type, S. alhxda.^ 



Stephanasterias Ver., Bull. Essex Inst., iii, p. 5, 1871. Expl. of Casco Bay, 

 Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci. for 1873, pp. 356, 359, 364, 1874. Check List 

 Invert., 1879. Expl. Albatross, 1883, p. 540, 1885. * 



Nanaster Perrier, Exp. Trav. et Talism., pp. 129, 131, 133, 1894. Camp. 

 Scientif. I'Hirondelle, p. 27, 1896. 



Stichaster {jmrs) Verrill, 1866, p. 351. Perrier, p. 347, 1875. Sladen, p. 432, 

 1889. 



Perrier, in adopting this generic division, proposed by me in 1871, 

 changed the name to Nanaster^ on the ground that Stephanasterias 

 was preoccupied by Stephanaster Ayres. The latter name was well 

 known to me when I used the former, but I regard the two names 

 as perfectly distinct : the one being based on Asterias / the other 

 on Aster. The genus, if adopted, should thei-efoi-e be called 

 Stejihanasterias. It is certainly very closely related to typical Sti- 

 chaster. 



