90 NATUEAL HISTORY BULLETIN 



Ophidiaster GuiLDiNGn Gray. 



OpMdiaster guildi/ngii Gray, op. cit., 1840, p. 284; Synopsis, p. 13,, 1866 

 (description inadequate). Perrier, Revision, p. 387, 1875 (no descrip- 

 tion). Liiitken, op. cit., 1871. 



Scytaster mulleri Duchassaing, Ann. Rad. des Antilles, 1850 (t. Perrier 

 from types.) 



OpMdiaster fiaccidus Liitken, Vidensk, Meddel., p. 86, 1859 (good descrip- 

 tion.) 



Rays five, with a weak skeleton, roundish, slender. Radii of a 

 medium sized specimen 5°^™ and 60™™; ratio 1:12. Other speci- 

 mens have shorter rays. The dorsal and lateral surfaces are cov- 

 ered with about nine rows of plates, between which there are eight 

 equally spaced and pretty regular rows of large papular areas, 

 each with about five to twelve papular pores. There is no median 

 area destitute of papulae. Marginal plates are much like the 

 dorsals. All these plates are covered with small, unequal, squam- 

 miform granules, some of them minute. 



The adambulacral plates bear two rows of small obtuse spin- 

 ules; those of the inner or furrow series are small, equal, and 

 crowded; those in the adjacent outer row are decidedly larger, 

 about half as numerous, with some granules between their bases. 



The color, in life, commonly varies from orange-red, with ir- 

 regular yellow markings, to purplish brown, with blotches of dirty 

 white (Clark). 



Liitken (op. cit., 1871) recognized that his 0. flaccidus is the 

 same as 0. guildingii Grray. 



Locality of Gray's types was unknown. Perrier, who exam- 

 ined the types, states that they are identical with 0. flaccidus. 



St. Thomas (Liitken; Perrier). Fort Reef, Port Antonio, 

 Jamaica (Clark.) 



Ophidiaster florid^ Perrier. 



OpMdiaster floriad^B Perrier, op. cit., 1881, p. 9; Mem. Etoiles de Mer, p. 

 221, pi. iv, fig. 1. 



This was described from a single young specimen (radii 5 and 

 33"^°^) from off Florida, in 201/2 fathoms. 



It is, perhaps, the young of 0. guildingii, the common shallow 

 water West Indian species. 



According to Perrier it is formed much like a Linckia. The 

 dorsal and marginal plates form seven regular rows of elongated 



