262 VERRILL 



and this is also a common number of rays in the common Atlantic 

 papposus. 



Ludwig- (Fauna Arctica, p. 464) identified Brandt's alboverru- 

 cosa with 6". endeca; but Brandt recorded the latter (var. decem- 

 radiata) as from Sitka, in the same article. His descriptions are, 

 of themselves, wholly insufficient to identify any species, and prob- 

 ably the colored drawings on which they were based were neither 

 accurate nor detailed. It is possible that the names on the original 

 drawings have been transposed since Brandt named them in 1835. 



A closely related species (S. penicillatus Sladen) occurs in the 

 South Atlantic, S. lat. 37° 25' 30" to 46° 43', in 1 10 to 140 fathoms. 



Family ASTERINID^ Gray. 



Asterinidce Gray, Ann. and Mag. N. Hist., vi, p. 228, 1840; Synopsis, p. 15, 1866. 

 Perrier, Revis. Stell., iv, p. 292, 1875 ; V- P- 209, 1876. Viguier, Squelette 

 des Stell., Arch. Zool. Exper., vii, p. 205, pi. xiv, figs. 1-13, 1878 (structure). 

 Sladen, Voy. Challenger, xxx, p. 374, 1889. Perrier, Expl. Trav. et 

 Talism., pp. 141, 163, 1894. Fisher, op. cit., 191 1&, p. 253 (table of genera). 

 Verrill, Revision of the Genera, Amer. Journ. Science, xxxv, p. 477, May, 

 1813. 



Body usually rather flat, often thin, normally pentagonal or hex- 

 agonal, rarely with eight rays ; edges usually thin, formed mainly by 

 the inferomarginals ; marginal plates small, usually scarcely larger 

 than the adjacent dorsals, covered with a group of spinules. Dor- 

 sal plates usually flat and more or less imbricated, sometimes not 

 imbricated ; generally covered with granules or minute spinules, not 

 rarely with tufts or combs of spines ; sometimes covered with a soft, 

 naked, or granular dermis. Under side flat ; actinal plates imbricated 

 or closely united, usually furnished with small combs or tufts of 

 spinules, or with only one. Adambulacral spines generally webbed ; 

 furrow-spines form a comb of two to six or more, sometimes two or 

 more combs superimposed. Pedicellariae usually lacking; when 

 present erect, two-bladed. 



Genus Asterina Nardo. 



Type, A. minuta Nardo = /I. gibbosa (Penn.). 



Asterina Nardo, Oken's Isis, p. 716, 1834. Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 VI, p. 286, 1840; Synopsis, p. 16, 1866. Perrier, Revis. Stell., Arch. Zool. 

 Exper. et Gen., v, p. 214. 1876. A. Agassiz, North American Starfishes, 

 p. 106, pi. XIV, 1877 (structure). Viguier, op. cit, vii, p. 207, pi. xiv, 

 figs. 8-13, 1878 (structure). Sladen (pars), Voy. Challenger, xxx, p. 

 388, 1889. Fisher (pars), op. cit., 1911b, p. 254. 



