130 



A.C. CAMPBELL AND F.W.E. ROWE 



spinelets; actinal plates distinctly aligned in oblique series between 

 the second or third, and subsequent adambulacral plates and the 

 inferomarginal plates and delimiting a membranous, proximal, tri- 

 angular area which is usually filled by several plates; ventral-lateral 

 angle of rays supported internally by abactinal plates which meet the 

 actinal plates by virtue of the oblique alignment of both; towards the 

 ray base as the ventral-lateral angle becomes less acute with ray 

 depth, totally internalised plates, spanning between the abactinal 

 and actinal plates, can be found; actinal armament coarse, short 

 spines, mostly single, not more than two per plate; furrow spines 

 usually two (sometimes one) per plate; subambulacral spines one 

 (rarely two); suboral spines one to four or none; no pedicellariae. 



Species included: Patiriella brevispina H.L. Clark, 1938; 

 Asterias calcar Lamarck, \%\6\ Asteriscus calcarata Perrier, 1869; 

 Asteriscus chilensis Lutken, 1859; Asterina dyscrita H.L. Clark, 

 1923; Asterias exigua Lamarck, 1816; Asterina fimbriata Perrier, 

 1875; Asterina gunni Gray, 1840; Patiriella inornata Livingstone, 

 1933; Asterina oliveri Benham, 1911; Patiriella parvivipara 

 Keough and Dartnall, 1978; Patiriella pseudoexigua Dartnall, 1971 

 (with subspecies pacifica (Hayashi, 1977, as Asterina); Asterina 

 (Asteriscus) regularis Verrill, 1870 (1867); Patiriella vivipara 



Dartnall, 1969b; Patiriella paradoxa sp. nov. 



Other species Patiriella nigra H.L. Clark, 1938 and Patiriella 

 obscura Dartnall, 1971 are considered to be conspecific with P. 

 oliveri (Benham) and P. pseudoexigua Dartnall respectively by 

 Rowe (in Rowe and Gates, 1995); Patiriella tangribensis Domantay 

 and Acosta, 1970, is inadequately described and cannot confidently 

 be assigned to this genus. 



Remarks 



The genus Patiriella Verrill, 1913, has had a rather chequered 

 history. It has been considered a valid taxon by most recent authors 

 (e.g. Fisher, 1919; H.L. Clark, 1928; 1938; 1946; Livingstone, 1933; 

 Madsen, 1956; Dartnall, 1971; A.M. Clark and Rowe, 1971; A.M. 

 Clark and Courtman-Stock, 1976; A.M. Clark, 1983; A.M. Clark 

 and Downey, 1992) or a synonym of Asterina Nardo, 1834 (e.g. H.L. 

 Clark, 1916; 1923; Hayashi, 1940; 1977; Mortensen, 1933 (as a 

 subgenus of Asterina)). The history and current status of Patiriella 

 has been most recently discussed by A.M. Clark (1983; 1992 (in 

 Clark and Downey)) who commented (1992:178) that 'The very 

 coarse and abbreviated, almost granuliform, armament of the upper 

 side may warrant a supra-specific distinction from A. gibbosa of P. 



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Fig. 1 a, Scanning electron micrograph of the actinial surface of Asterina gibbosa from Plymouth U.K. Scale bar = 5mm . G = gonopore; b, Scanning 

 electron micrograph of the actinial surface of Asterina'' cepheus from Wadi Haart, Sadh. Dhofar, Southern Oman. Scale bar = 5mm 



