WEST INDIAN STAEFISHES 



39 



above the other; the other is much smaller and deeper in the 

 groove ; distally there is often another smaller furrow-spine still 

 deeper in the groove. The madreporite is round, elevated, wart- 

 like, and covered with small rough spinules. The color of the 

 dry specimens is yellowish brown, to dark purplish brown. 



Mr. A. Agassiz (op. cit., 1877, pi. x) gave excellent figures of 

 this species from living specimens as well as many structural 

 details of the skeletal parts. 



It is the common shallow water species found on our coast, 

 from North Carolina to Florida. In the number and size of the 

 spines and the number of the rows it exceeds E. echinophora, 

 but has many less than E. spin ulosa. 



Most of the earlier writers, including Lamarck, Miiller and 

 Troschel, and many others combined this with ^. echi)iophora, 

 under the specific name spinosns,'' a name that was often at- 

 tributed to Retzius, 1805 (as Asterias spinosa), which was ante- 

 dated, however, by A. spinosa Pennant. It is doubtful, as shown 

 by Llitken, whether the brief diagnosis of Retzius refers to any 

 Echinaster. In any case it was preoccupied and cannot be used 

 for any species of this genus. 



The Asterias spinosa of Say, 1825, was primarily the common 

 Asterias forhesi of our coast, but also included A. vulgaris, for 

 he had specimens from the coast of Maine. 



This determination, and also the fact that Say's A. sentus, 

 was an Echinaster like spinosus of authors, was published by me 

 in 1866. (Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. x, p. 348) and was 

 earlier communicated to Liitken. I did not publish the combined 

 names at that time. 



This species occurs in shallow water on the southern coasts of 

 the United States, from North Carolina to the Florida Reefs, 

 and to Yucatan. It is also common in the West Indies, from 

 the Bahamas to St. Thomas. I have seen it from Cuba, Ba- 

 hamas, and Hayti. Yucatan (Ives), St. Thomas (Liitken), Ba- 

 hia and Pemambuco, Brazil (R. Rathbun), Jamaica (Clark). 



The Bahama Expedition took specimens on the Great Bahama 

 Bank, including one four-rayed specimen, described above. 



