202 NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN 



Rays five, a little swollen or depressed, long and fragile. It 

 grows to rather large size, up to 325"™ in diameter ; more often 

 about 200°^"^. 



The dorsal paxillae are small, rounded, and have a central spin- 

 ule, longer and larger than the slender stellate ones that sur- 

 round it. Four of the lateral rows of paxillae are larger and 

 more regular than the others with a longer middle spinule ; those 

 on the median part of the rays and on the disk are smaller, with 

 fewer spinules. Those next to the marginals may lack the larger 

 central spinule. 



The inferomarginal plates bear two larger, long, acute, upper 

 marginal spines, alternating in position, so as to form two series. 

 On the lower side the plates also bear about three larger spines 

 in a row, and many small acute ones. 



The adambulacral plates bear either three or four slender 

 spines in a transverse row, the innermost curved and smaller 

 than the others. 



The madreporic plate is usually concealed by the paxillse. 



This is a shallow- water species found mostly in sheltered local- 

 ities on sandy or muddy bottoms, often just below low tide mark. 

 Yet it extends down to 40 fathoms, off Florida (A. Agassiz), and 

 to 88 fathoms in the Antilles (Perrier). Florida Reefs (Say) ; 

 Yucatan (Ives). Off Bahia, Brazil, in 7 to 20 fathoms (Sladen). 



It ranges from the coast of Florida throughout the West In- 

 dies to Bahia, Brazil. Port Royal, Jamaica, on muddy bottom 

 near mangroves (Clark). St. Thomas, 20 fathoms (Liitken). 



It was taken by the Bahama Expedition on the Great Bahama 

 Bank (one young and two large) and near Key West, Florida. 



It has not been found at the Bermudas. 



I have examined the type of Luidia variegata Per. in the Mus. 

 Comp. Zoology. It is evidently the young of this species. It 

 was from Isle Breton, off the mouth of the Mississippi River. 



Color in life : olive-green or purplish with yellowish irregular 

 bands across the rays; under side yellow (Say). According to 

 Nutting (Narrative, p. 166) the marginal spines of the larger 

 specimens were chocolate-brown at the base and white at the tips. 



The color in life, according to Ives, is straw-color, with three 

 or four irregular transverse bands of blackish on the dorsal 

 surface, not extending to the under side ; spines greenish ; ends 



