14 Mr. A. E. Verrill on some 



refused to give it recognition. One peculiar feature of tlie 

 genus is the fact tliat the eggs and young are carried attached 

 in clusters to the oral region until tiie young become genuine 

 little starfishes, furnished with sucker-feet and able to care 

 for themselves, thus skipping the remarkable free-swimming 

 larval stages of A sterias. 



This has been observed in the case of many species, among 

 them L. milUeri, L. compta, L. Uttoralis, L. e2)ichlora (Br.) 

 of Alaska and its six-rayed variety {^alashends, Verrill), and 

 others. 



I have recently observed that in all these species the 

 genital openings are on the under side near the mouth, 

 instead of being on the upper interradial area, as in typical 

 Asterias and most other northern genera. '^J'he eggs are also 

 larger, with more yolk, and the ovarian lobes have a different 

 form. 



These additional characters ought to satisfy everyone that 

 the genus is very distinct from Asterias, though the external 

 characters are often very mucli alike. 



Leptasterias hyherhorea (Daniels. & Koren), 1884, p. 10, 

 pi. iii. figs. 1-7 (as Asterias). — This fine Arctic species has 

 not hitherto been definitely recorded . from America. I 

 dredged several p:ood specimens near Eastport, Maine, as 

 long ago as 1864, and others in later years. The largest 

 were about eight inches in diameter ; most were about six 

 inches. It has regularly tapered, stout, terete rays, with a 

 firm dorsal skeleton, due to thick plates and few papular 

 pores ; spines are numerous, subequal, obtuse, not slender. 



Other species belonging to this genus are L. a^quaJis (St.) 

 and L. h'exactis (St.) of the N. Pacific coast; L. grdnlandica 

 (Arctic) ; L. fascicularis (Per.), W. Indies ; and many 

 others. 



The same habit of carrying the eggs and young is shared 

 by certain Antarctic genera of this family, otherwise very 

 different. To express this feature I have adopted the term 

 pccdophoric habit. It appears to be always associated with 

 ventral genital pores. 



Podasterias (Perrier, 1896, emended). Type, P. liukeni, 

 Per., non Stimpson. — This is another peedophoric genus, with 

 several Antarctic species. It has ventral genital pores, and 

 carries its young in large clusters. It is diplacanthid and in 

 general structure much like Asterias. 



Fisher (1908, p. 89) was mistaken in making it a synonym 

 of Pisaster, for the latter is monacanthid and, so far as 

 known, is not psedophoric. Therefore the name liilheni holds 



