VERRILL 



is a large, five-rayed species, similar as to spinulation and thick 

 dermis, but with very unlike pedicellariae. 



Its major pedicellariae are remarkably slender, numerous, part of 

 them large, narrow-lanceolate and acute. The minor pedicellariae 

 are minute and very abundant, both on the dermis and on thick sheaths 

 around the sulcated dorsal spines. 



This genus somewhat resembles Marthasterias. 



* 



Genus Cosmasterias Sladen, 1889. 

 Type, Asterias sulcifera Perrier, 1869, = C. lurida (Phil.). 

 Diplasterias (pars) PERKIER, 1891. 



This is also a genus apparently peculiar to the Patagonian and 

 Fuegian region, where one species is abundant in shallow water and 

 often at low tide. 



It is diplacanthid ; jaw-spines and adorals are elongated ; the dorsal 

 plates form several longitudinal bands or rows, and in the adult each 

 plate bears a group, of short, unequal spines. There is at least one 

 row of interactinal spines; often three or more rows, when adult. 

 Large unguiculate or felipedal pedicellarise are found, above and 

 below. Neither of the species has been observed to carry the young. 



COSMASTERIAS LURIDA (Phil., 1858) Ludwig, 1905. 

 Cosmasterias sulcifera (PERRIER, 1869, as Asterias) Sladen, 1889. To this 

 species Leipoldt, 1895, unites the following: Asteracanthion clavatum 

 Phil. ; A. fulvum Phil. ; A. spectabile Phil. ; A. mite Phil. ; and Stichaster 

 polygrammus Sladen, 1887, 245 fathoms. 



The species last named seems to me clearly distinct. (See below, 

 p. 360.) 



To the synonyms of this species it will probably be necessary to add 

 Asterias obtusispinosa Bell, 1881, p. 92, pi. ix, fig. 3 ; and A. neglecta 

 Bell, op. cit., p. 94, pi. ix, fig. 4. Both are Patagonian ; the former 

 from Sandy Point, 9 to 10 fathoms. C. alba (Bell), loc. cit., p. 92, 

 pi. ix, fig. 2, also from Sandy Point, may not be distinct, though it has 

 somewhat longer spines. 



C. sulcifera has been considered the type of Cosmasterias Sladen 

 and Diplasterias Perrier. (See, also, Introduction, p. 48.) 



It is diplacanthid and has several (two or more) rows of inter- 

 actinal plates ; its dorsal plates form unequal longitudinal rows, each 

 plate, in the adults, bearing a transverse group of short, unequal 

 spines, becoming numerous in large specimens. The minor pedicel- 

 lariae are abundant around the spines and on the dermis, and there 

 are many large, scattered major pedicellariae, some of them unguicu- 

 late or dentate. 



