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A NEW GENUS OF STARFISHES FROM PUERTO RICO 



By Austin H. Clark 

 Curator, Division of Echinodcrms, U. S. National Museum 



(With One Plate) 



Among the starfishes obtained by the First Johnson-Smithsonian 

 Deep-Sea Expedition to the Puerto Rican Deep was a single very 

 small specimen representing a species falling in the family Ganeriidae, 

 though wholly unlike any form now included in that family. 



A very similar specimen was described by M. Edmond Perrier 

 in 1881 under the name of Korethrasicr radians. Perrier's description 

 is very sketchy and lacks many essential details. No locality is given 

 for the specimen or specimens upon which it was based, and there 

 are no figures. 



In 1883 Perrier listed this species as Lophastcr radians and gave 

 two localities for it — off Barbados in 56 fathoms, and off Havana 

 in 80 fathoms. In the same memoir he listed and figured it under 

 the name of Solaster radians, and reprinted the original description 

 under the new name Korethrasicr hispidus. 



The figures of Solaster radians, though lacking in essential details, 

 might well have been drawn from the species represented by the 

 specimen dredged by the Caroline. 



Thanks to the kindness of my friend Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark, 

 I have been permitted to examine the type specimen of Perrier's 

 Korethraster radians (M.C.Z. no. 912). This and the Caroline 

 specimen agree in all essential particulars, and appear to represent 

 the same species — radians Perrier. The generic type represented by 

 radians, however, is far removed from Korethraster, Lophaster, and 

 Solaster, which belong to the family Solasteridae. 



This generic type may be known as 



LEILASTER, n. gen. 



Korethraster (part) E. Perrier, Bull. AIus. Comp. Zool., vol. 9, no. i, p. 12, 



June 25, 1881. 

 Lophaster (part) E. Perkier, Nouv. arch. mus. d'hist. nat., ser. 2, vol. 6, pp. 167, 



169, 170, 1883. 

 Solaster (part) E. Perrier, Nouv. arch. mus. d'hist. nat., ser. 2, vol. 6, p. 184, 



1883. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 91, No. 29 



