THE STARFISHES OE THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
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Family ARCHASTERID 4 : Viguier, 1878 (emend). 
Archasterid® Yiguier, Anatomie ComparCe du Squellette des Stell6rides.< Arch. Zool. Exp6r. et G6n6r., t. vn, 1878, p. 235 
(separate). Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. x, 1899, p. 201; restricted to genus Archaster. 
Genus ARCHASTER Muller & Troschel. 
Archaster Muller and Troschel, Monatsber. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss., Berlin, 1840, p. 104; System der Asteriden, 1842, p. 65. 
Emended by Sladen, Challenger Asteroidea, 1889, p. 120. Type Archaster typicus Muller and Troschel. 
Archaster typicus Muller & Troschel. 
At chaster typicus Muller and Troschel, Monatsber. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, April, 1840, p. 104. J. E. Ires, Proc. Philad. 
Acad. Sci. 1889, p. 175. . 
This well known and widely distributed species was not taken by the naturalists of the Albatross , 
although considerable work was done on reefs and dredging was carried on in shallow water. A 
specimen collected by W. H. Pease is recorded by J. E. Ives (op. cit. , p. 175) from the “Sandwich 
Islands”. He says: “ The specimen from the Sandwich Islands differs from the others by its narrower 
arms and greater number of arm plates, having about 40 to each side of an arm, whereas others have 
only about 35. It differs also in color, being of a very light cream color instead of light or dark 
umber. This however may be due to fading of the original tint”.® 
An examination of several Samoan specimens reveals the fact that there is some variation in the 
length and breadth of the rays, while the number of superomarginal plates may be as great as 52. 
This species has a certain resemblance to some forms of Astropecten, but may be readily distin- 
guished from any member of that group by the absence of superambulacral plates, and by the presence 
of a very well defined median radial series of paxillse. 
Family G 0 NIASTERID 4 } Forbes, 1840 (pars). 
Goniasterid® (pars) Forbes, A History of British Starfishes, etc., 1841. Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. 1 , 1867, p. 343. 
Perrier, Revision des Stell6rides, 1875, p. 185. 
Pentagonasterid® Perrier, Mem. sur les Etoiles de Mer, etc., 1884, p. 231. Sladen, Challenger Asteroidea, 1889, p. 260. 
Key to Hawaiian genera of Goniasteridse. 
a. Whole test not overlaid with a fairly thick skin or membrane, obscuring the plates. 
' b. Abactinal area with tabulate paxilliform plates, either rounded or stellate on the papular area, 
c. Abactinal plates round, on the radial papular areas connected by internal, slender, very regular, 
radiating ossicles which are independent of the plates Mediaster 
cc. Abactinal plates strongly stellate, 4 to 5 lobed, imbricating by the tips of the processes, which 
are stout . N ereid aster 
bb. Abactinal area paved with rounded or polygonal plates which may be smooth and bordered by 
a single series of granules, or their surface may be covered with granules. They may bear 
isolated spines and short tubercles, or may be covered with short spines and granules 
invested in pulpy sheaths. Plates not tabulate nor papilliform, 
c. Form pentagonal to stellate. Superomarginal plates separated on ray by at least one series of 
abactinal plates; or occasionally 1 or 2 distal superomarginals are in contact medially. 
d. No prominent spines or tubercles on any of the plates. No enlarged actinal adambulacral 
spines. Abactinal plates smooth or granuliferous. 
e. Granules more or less bead-like. No large bivalved pedicellarise. 
/. Marginal plates very large and few, the second superomarginal conspicuously larger than 
either the first or third. Abactinal area granulose Pentagonaster 
ff. Marginal plates few to many, evenly graduated in size, neither the second nor any sub- 
terminal superomarginal conspicuously larger than the preceding plates Tosia 
a After this paper was ready for the press I received from Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, 
the above specimen. I have nothing to add to Mr. Ives’s observations, except that very few of the superomarginals bear 
a small upright tubercular spinelet. In one of the Samoan specimens these are conspicuous. The number of superomar- 
ginals is not great for the size (R=60 mm., r=10.5 mm.), since a specimen from Samoa, with R=65 mm., has 48 supero- 
marginals. The armature of the adambulacral plates is the same in Hawaiian and Samoan examples. 
