54 Papers from the Department of Marine Biology. 
The following 14 species make up the list of littoral sea-stars of the 
West Indies. All have been taken at or near low-water mark, certainly 
in less than 3 feet of water. 
Astropecten articulatus (Say). Asterina minuta Gray. 
duplicatus Gray. Stegnaster wesseli (Perrier). 
Luidia alternata (Say). Ophidiaster guildingii Gray. 
clathrata (Say). Linckia guildingii Gray. 
senegalensis (Lamarck). Echinaster sentus (Say). 
Oreaster reticulatus (L.). | spinulosus Verrill. 
Asterina folium (Liitken). ' Coscinasterias tenuispina (Lamarck). 
The West Indian species of Astropecten are exceedingly perplexing, 
although Verrill has recently (1915, Bull. Univ. Iowa, Lab. Nat. 
Hist. 7, pp. 152-187) made an important contribution to their eluci- 
dation. Liitken’s A. antillensits has been often recorded, but Verrill 
thinks it is possible that this nominal species is identical with dupli- 
catus. If he is correct, it is obvious that the forms I listed from Porto 
Rico as antillensis (1901, U.S. Fish Com. Bull., 2, p. 236) are certainly 
not that species. They are perhaps Verrill’s A. comptus. All the astro- 
pectens which I have myself collected at the Tortugas, in Jamaican 
waters, and at Tobago are referable to either articulatus or duplicatus, 
and I am inclined to consider these the only two strictly littoral species. 
Conditions in the genus Echinaster are equally bad. A number of 
species are listed from Florida and from Brazil, and several of these 
are recorded from Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Porto Rico, and St. Thomas. 
My experience in Jamaica has satisfied me that there is only one 
littoral species there and, so far as I can see, it is not distinguishable 
from the common Florida species, sentus. I have previously called it 
spinosus, but Verrill has pointed out that no species of Echinaster 
may properly bear that name. The material in the Museum of 
Comparative Zodlogy shows that sentus is a very variable species and 
it may be that a more satisfactory knowledge of it will permit the 
recognition of varieties and possibly of subspecies. So far as I can see, 
no other species of Echinaster is known from the West Indies proper, 
but on the west coast of Florida, as far south as the Tortugas, there is 
a second well-marked species, spinulosus Verrill. There are specimens, 
undoubtedly spinulosus, in the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy 
labeled as coming from off Cape Fear, North Carolina, in 7 fathoms, 
but there is a possibility of a mistaken label, and the record may be 
ignored until confirmed by the discovery of additional specimens north 
of Florida. Verrill says he has seen no specimens from the eastern 
coast of Florida, and of those in the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, 
all (save the lot mentioned) are from western Florida or Louisiana. 
There can be little doubt of the occurrence of two species of Asterina 
in the West Indies, as I have found both in Jamaica and at Tobago, 
