ARCTIC SEA TO THE WEST OF GREENLAND. 



ASTEROIDEA. 



ALL the Asteroids of the Smith-Sound fauna belong to well-known forms, with the 

 single exception of Pedicellaster palceocrystallus from Discovery Bay and Cape Frazer. 

 Several of the species are here recorded from much higher latitudes than they have 

 previously been known to inhabit ; and one of them, Lophaster furcifer, is found for 

 the first time within the entreme boreal regions. 



The following is a list of the Asteroids herein described from the Smith-Sound 

 area, including all which have been found in the confluent portion of the N. Atlantic, 

 north of the Arctic circle (66 30') : 



1 . Asteracanthion polare, Miiller & Troschel. 



2. Asteracanthion grcenlandicum (Steenstp.), Liitken. 



3. Stichaster albuhis (Stimps.), Verrill. 



4. Cribrella oculata (Linck), Forbes. 



5. Pedicellaster palceocrystallus, Sladen. 



6. Crossaster papposus (Linck), M. & T. 



7. Solaster endeca (Gmel.), Forbes. 



8. Lophaster furcifer (D. & K.), Verrill. 



9. Pteraster militaris (O. F. M.), M. & T. 

 10. Ctenodiscus corniculatus (Linck), Perrier. 



ASTERACANTHION POLARE, Miiller & Troschel. Plate II. Figs. 4-8. 



1780. Asterias rubens, Fabricius (non Linnd), Fauna Gromlandica, p. 367, no. 362. 



1780. Asterias minuta, Fabricius, Fauna Groenlandica, p. 370. no. 365 (juv.). 



1821. ? Asterias violacea, Sabine (non Miiller), Append. Parry's Voyage,_1819-20 in ' Hecla ' and ' Griper,' 



p. ccxxiii. 



1842. Asteracanthion polaris, Miiller & Troschel, System der Asteriden, p. 16. 

 1851. ? Asteracanthium ochotense, Brandt, Middendorffs Keise in den aussersten Norden und Osten 



Sibericus, Bd. ii. Th. 1, p. 28. 



1857. Asteracanthion polaris, Liitkon, Vid. Meddel. N. Forening i Kjobenhavn, 1857, p. 28. 

 1862. Asteracanthion rubens (pars), Dujardin & Hupe, Hist. Nat. des Zooph. chinodermes, p. 331. 

 1866. Asterias polaris, Verrill, Proceed. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. x. p. 356. 

 1869. Asteracanthion polaris ?, Perrier, Recherches sur les Pedicellaires et les Ambulacres des Asteries et 



des Oursins, p. 33. 

 1875. Aslerias polaris, Perrier, Revision des Stellerides, p. 58. 



A Starfish of large robust habit, readily distinguishable from the other species of 

 Asteracanthion which occur in the Arctic regions. Rays generally six in number, 

 rounded, swollen at the sides, and tapering only at the extremity. Disk-radius to arm- 

 radius as 1 : 4'4-4'75 approximately. Each adambulacral plate bears two ambulacral 

 spines, which radiate apart from one another. In some specimens every pair throughout 



