Distribution of Littoral Echinoderms of the West Indies. 55 
and Hartmeyer found both at Barbados. Verrill doubts the dis- 
tinctness of the two forms and calls both folium. Déderlein (1910, 
Zool. Jahrb. Supp. 11, pp. 152-155) gives the name minuta to the form 
with 2 to 4 spinelets on the actinolateral plates, and describes the 
form with a single such spinelet as a new species, hartmeyeri. As has 
long been known, both forms were regarded by Gray as varieties of 
Linné’s Asterias minuta, but in 1859 Lutken gave the name folium 
to the form with 2 to 4 actinolateral spinelets, leaving the name 
minuta for the other. Hence Déderlein’s proposed name seems to 
me quite superfluous. 
Verrill (1900, Trans. Conn. Acad., 10, p. 584) gives Ophidiaster 
guildingit as occurring at Bermuda, but this is obviously a slip of the 
pen, Linckia guildingii being the species he had in mind. The little 
sea-star taken by me at Port Antonio, Jamaica, in 1897 and listed 
(1898, J. H. U. Cire., No. 137, p. 5) as Pentagonaster parvus is of very 
uncertain identity; it will probably prove to be a young Oreaster 
reticulatus, the growth stages of which are at present almost wholly 
unknown. 
Of the 14 sea-stars listed above, one appears to be tropicopolitan 
and hence of little service in determining faunal areas within the 
tropics; this is Linckia guildingii. 1 have examined specimens from 
the Society Islands; Masthead Island, Queensland; Zanzibar; and 
Lower Guinea, as well as much material from the West Indian region, 
and I have not discovered any valid specific differences. 
Of the remaining 13 species, Luzdia alternata, L. clathrata, and Ore- 
aster reticulatus are widely distributed in the tropical Atlantic from 
South Carolina to Brazil, and Oreaster occurs even in the eastern 
Atlantic. A similar but somewhat more southern range is that of 
Luidia senegalensis, which, although known from the west coast of 
Africa, does not occur at Bermuda or on the coast of the United 
States north of Florida. 
Of the remaining species, the following 5 are distinctly characteristic 
of the West Indian region: Astropecten duplicatus, Asterina folium, 
A. minuta, Stegnaster wesselit, and Ophidiaster guildingi; while Astro- 
pecten articulatus, Echinaster sentus, and E. spinulosus seem to be 
restricted to the northern part of the region. If, however, it is true, 
as reported, that A. articulatus really occurs at Dominica and Martin- 
ique, and EF. sentus actually lives on the coasts of Brazil, which seems 
improbable, this distinction has no validity, for EH. spinulosus is a 
very local species, probably confined to the northeastern coasts of the 
Gulf of Mexico. 
The fourteenth species, Coscinasterias tenuispina, is distinctly a 
Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic form. It is common at Bermuda, 
but it is not impossible that it was introduced there accidentally. 
