38 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. ub 



are the two criteria used here to place specimens, at least tentatively, 

 in form tuberculata. 



Occm-rence in this collection was limited to Lake Melville (fig. 1), 

 that is, to relatively warm water, mostly above 0° C, of fairly low 

 salinity, 25 to 28.5 (fig. 2). This is a curious circumstance, the 

 species being known from North America eastward to the Kara Sea, 

 in Arctic and Subarctic waters. Its apparent total absence from the 

 outer coastal waters may be a result of insufiicient collecting. If 

 present, however, it may be assumed that numbers are small. Large 

 concentrations in Lake Melville are undeniable, and indications of 

 preference by the species for low salinity conditions are fairly clear. 



Solaster papposus (Linnaeus) 



Asterias papposa Linnaeus, 1767, p. 1098. 



Solaster papposus (Linnaeus). — Fisher, 1911, p. 325, pi. 94 (figs. 1-6). 



Collected at 24 stations; 13 to 225 m.; mud, rock, rubble; 1949: 

 BD4 (1 specimen), BD5 (2), BD16 (8), BD24 (1), BD28 (1), BD30 

 (7), Davis Inlet (4); 1950: BLDS (2), BLD4 (1), BLD14 (1), BLD15 

 (1), BLD16 (3), BLD18 (2), BLD19 (1), BLD22 (2); 1951: BLDl, 

 11, 34 (2), BLD3 (2), BLD5 (1), BLD19/39 (3), BLD40 (1), BLD44 

 (2); 1952: I-2a, b (1), I-ll (1), 1-16 (2). 



These specimens range in diameter from 7 to 176 mm. and have 

 from 9 to 13 rays. More than half (53%) have 12 rays. It is the 

 most abundantly collected asteroid on the Labrador coast (fig. 1), 

 as indeed it appears to be throughout most of the eastern Arctic-Sub- 

 arctic part of the North American coast. Temperature-salinity tol- 

 erance is wide (fig. 2), from nearly —2° to 4° C, and from about 

 25°/oo to 33%o. Most collections are from the outer Labrador 

 coast; a few specimens were taken, however, in the outermost reaches 

 of Lake Melville. It is a circumpolar species, ranging from Arctic to 

 Boreal waters. 



Pteraster militaris (O. F. Miiller) 



Asterias militaris 0. F. Miiller, 1776, p. 234. 



Pteraster militaris (O. F. Miiller) .—M. Sars, 1861, p. 48, pis. 3 (figs. 8, 9) 4, 5, 6 



(figs. 1-13). 



Collected at 3 stations; 82 to 108 m.; silt, sandy mud, stone. 1949: 

 BD20 (1 specimen), Kaipokok Inlet (1); 1951: BLD3 (1). 



The 3 individuals, 148, 118, and 70 mm. in diameter, show R:r 

 values of 2.4:1, 2.6:1, and 2.3:1 respectively. They are rather un- 

 exceptional members of this widely distributed nearly circumpolar, 

 Arctic, Subarctic and Boreal species. Occurrence here (fig. 1) is limited 

 to two locations which (fig. 2) have high salinity of nearly 33 and 

 low temperature of near —2° C. 



