SHALLOW-WATER STARFISHES 135 



length. The dorsal surface is green, covered with whitish spines, of 

 which the summit is capitate, arranged crowdedly in a reticulate 

 manner. Ventral surface pale rose. Diameter of disk, one inch ; 

 length of ray, three inches [probably measured from center of 

 disk]." 



Many of our specimens agree very well with this in size and pro- 

 portion. But the young of troschelii, when of this size, would have 

 a very small disk and far more slender and longer rays, which no 

 one could call " conical " or " subdepressed." * 



Several writers have confounded Brandt's species with troschelii, 

 especially more recently. M. de Loriol (1897) has given a full 

 description and excellent figures of troschelii, under the name of 

 epichlora. The only points of agreement are the reticulate arrange- 

 ment of the dorsal spines and their capitate form. In troschelii the 

 rays are not only much longer and well rounded in life, but its color 

 above is decidedly red or brown. Moreover, although it occurs at 

 Sitka, it is far less common. 



The species described and figured by De Loriol (op. cit., p. 231, 

 1897) under the name of saamchensis, from Vancouver Island, 

 appears to be the five-rayed variety of Brandt's species, agreeing 

 very closely with his description. It also agrees very closely with 

 some of our Sitka specimens, 



Brandt's original Latin description of A. cavitschatica (Prod., 

 p. 270) was essentially as follows : Diameter of disk about one inch. 

 Rays six, conical acuminate, scarcely subequal in length, one to one 

 and a quarter inches long, much broader toward the base. The 

 whole back dusky or ochraceous and covered with crowded, pedi- 

 cellate, truncate-capitate, white or fuscus-white spines, arranged in 

 raised reticulations, forming subregular radial series. He stated 

 that the specimen obtained by Mertens had been lost, but had been 

 well drawn by Postelesius, and that there were other specimens in 

 the museum of the Academy. His first description, however, seems 

 to have been based entirely on the drawing. Later ( Middendorff 's 

 Reise, 185 1, 11, p. 32) he gave a rather shorter description in Ger- 

 man, which does not exactly agree with the former, but supplements 

 it. According to the later description it has two rows of ventral 

 spines and three of adambulacrals (probably due to alternate plates 

 bearing either one or two spines), and six or seven rows of crowded 

 dorsal spines. Greatest diameter of the largest, three inches; 

 breadth of the disk, one inch ; length of arms, one inch and two to 

 four lines. 



* See description below, page 155. 



