WEST INDIAN STAEFISHES 



77 



which, when moist, are visible through the thin dermis that cov- 

 ers them. A few of them bear one, two, or sometimes three small 

 clustered spinules. 



The carinal radial row of plates is rather conspicuous; the 

 plates are larger than those adjacent, irregularly four-lobed, 

 overlapping by their lobes. Small, isolated, short, acute spin- 

 ules are borne on most of the dorsal plates. The superomar- 

 ginal plates of which there are six on a side, do not reach the 

 margin ; they bear only a few granule-like small spinules, as now 

 preserved. 



The inferomarginal plates project strongly beyond the margin; 

 those in the middle of the interradial margin are decidedly larg- 

 er than the others. The marginal fringe of spines, that they 

 originally bore on each series, was mostly rubbed off before I 

 first saw the specimen, in 1896, but Perrier (1894) states that 

 there were four or five flat, lanceolate spinules on each plate of 

 the lower series. His figure, however (1884), represents them 

 as slender and acute. The figure is incorrect in various other 

 respects. 



According to the later description by Perrier (1894, p. 167), 

 the type of this species has the following characters: 



Radii 4°™ and 5°^. The adambulacral plates bear one inner 

 spine and another, or more often two, on the actinal side, a little 

 larger than the inner one, divergent and placed one behind the 

 other in a transverse row. 



On the dorsal side the central, five radial, and five interradial 

 plates are distinct. The basal radials are triangular with round- 

 ed corners, with the wider end turned proximally. The five car- 

 inals are imbricated and slightly cruciform, decreasing regularly 

 distally. The ocular or terminal plate is semicircular and with- 

 out spines. 



The central plate has three spinules: the interradials six or 

 seven ; the basal radials three ; the carinals two or one. 



Transverse rows of smaller elliptical dorsolateral plates run 

 from the carinals to the marginals. The first and second series 

 have apparently, three plates; the third two plates; the fourth 

 and fifth each have one unarmed plate. The larger of these 

 plates bear two or sometimes three, small spines; the smaller 

 only one spine. On the disk there are a few other plates irreg- 



