102 NATUEAL HISTOKY BULLETIN 



where it is plentiful. When dried it usually becomes deep terra- 

 cotta color or brown. 



In life it is more flexible than its appearance would indicate. 

 Xutting states that it can curve its rays above its back until the 

 tips touch. 



This is the largest and most massive West Indian stai-flsh and 

 also one of the most common in shallow water. It has a wide 

 range, extending from South Carolina to the Abrollios Eeefs, 

 Brazil, and to the Cape Verde Islands. It is veiy common in the 

 Bahamas, where large numbers were obtained by the Bahama 

 Expedition, and about the Florida reefs and keys, as well as 

 throughout the West Indies. Abundant at Bahia and Pernam- 

 buco, low tide to two fathoms, and at the Abrolbos Reefs (R. 

 Rathbun). South Carolina (Agassiz). 



Family GoNiASTERiDJE (Forbes), emended Terrill. 



GoniusteridcB (pars) Forbes, 1840. Verrill, Trans. Conn. Aead. Sci., i, p. 



343, 1867. Perrier (pars), Berision, Arch. Zool. Exper. et Gren., iv, pp. 



281, 283, 289, 291, 1875; op. cit., v, p. 1, 1876. 

 FentagonasieriiKF Vignier (pars), subfamily, op. cit., vii, p. 166, pi. s, figs. 



20-25, 1878. 



PentagonaMericl^ (pars) Perrier, op. cit.. p. 231, 1884. Sladen (pars), op. 



cit., pp. 269, 264, 1889. 

 Goniasterid(E Verrill (restricted). Envision, in Trans. Conn. Aead. Sci., 



p. 145, 1899 (non Vignier). Fisher, op. cit., 19116, p. 158. VerriU, 



op. cit., 1914a., pp. 281, 285, 286. 



Phanerozonate starfishes usually having a rather broad flat or 

 sHghtly convex, rather rigid disk, sometimes nearly pentagonal 

 in form, but often stellate with more or less prolonged rays. 

 Marginal plates usually large and thick, forming a thick, nearly 

 vertical margin, the two rows equal or subequal. 



Dorsal plates are various, but usually tesselated, polygonal, or 

 roundish, sometimes lobed or substellate, united directly or by 

 internal ossicles. They are commonly granulated or protopax- 

 illLform, sometimes spinulose, or they may bear tubercles or 

 spines; rarely naked, or covered with soft skin, with or without 

 granules. 



Interactinal plates usually numerous, angular, tesselated, or 

 imbricated. Super ambulacral plates may be present or absent. 

 Tube-feet are in two rows and have suckers. 



