49 
TAB. XXIY. 
ASTERIAS encleca. 
^Nine-rayed Star fish, or Sea Star. 
Class 6. Vermes. Order 2. Mollusca. 
Gen. Char. Body depressed, covered with a mu- 
ricated coriaceous crust, sulcated beneath, with 
tentacula. Mouth central, 5-valved. 
Spec. Char. With 9 rays, everywhere covered with 
pectinated tubercles. 
Syn. Asterias endeca. Gmel. Syst. Nat. v. 1. 8162. 
/2. Rumph. Mus. t. \5.f. F. 
We are indebted to the zeal and friendship of James Brodie, 
Esq., F. L. S., for the first discovery of Asterias endeca as a 
native of Great Britain. It was alive when he picked it up 
on the Nairn coast, in the Moray Firth. It is remarkable 
for the number of rays being mostly nine, and generally in 
the same position, in fives, threes and ones. They are 
thus represented in Rumphius’s figure, and are so in my spe- 
cimen j but are said occasionally to vary in number. The back 
is regularly covered with small, rough, somewhat pectinated 
tubercles, and the body has nine prominences placed a 
little above and between the divisions of the rays. It is of 
a purplish brown colour. The under side is lighter coloured. 
VOL. i. 
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