1088 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Genus ANSEROPODA" Nardo. 
! 
Anseropoda Nardo, De Asteriis, Oken’s Isis, 1834, p. 716. Type Anseropoda membranacea = Asterias placenta Pennant. 
Palmipes L. Agassiz, Mem. Soc. Sei. N. Neuch&tel, t. I, 1835, 192. 
Anseropoda insignis, new species. 
PI. xxxvm, figs. 1-la. 
Rays 6. R = 121mm.; r = 100 mm. R = 1.2r. A larger but less perfect specimen measures 
R, 127 mm.; r, 97 mm. R, 1.3 r. 
The rays are thus very short, but have a well-rounded, leaf-like contour, the interbrachial arcs 
being also rounded. Tip of ray more or less indented. Body very thin' and flat, slightly convex in 
center of disk, there being an abrupt, slightly elevated, rounded ridge along each medio-radial line. 
Abactinal plates of interradial areas bear 1 fairly large tuft of very delicate, sharp spinelets, with 
usually 1 to 3 or more tufts of smaller size around it. On interradial areas of outer half of disk there ij 
is usually but one tuft of about 7 to 10 spinelets, situated rather nearer the inner edge of plate than 
the center of exposed surface. Then, regarding toward radial areas and center of disk, there are 
added at either side first 1 and then 2 additional smaller tufts, which have 4 or 5 spinelets,' while the 
large tuft has 7 to 10 or more. Occasionally the 3 merge and form a larger irregular tuft. Toward 
central portion of disk there are often 4 tufts of nearly equal size, with about 8 to 10 spinelets in each, 
situated on the four corners of a plate, with several groups of 1 to 3 spinelets scattered between. I 
Other plates are irregular as to their armature, and the larger plates of the central or slightly elevated 
portion of disk have as many as 15 to 20 tufts of various sizes, mostly well spaced, and easily counted, 
but very irregular as to position. All spinelets are very delicate, sharp, and small, and are usually 
directed away from center of disk. On either side of median radial line there is a single series of 
numerous papulse, which do not quite reach to tip of ray nor to center of disk. The 2 series of a ray j 
are separated by 2 longitudinal series of plates, larger than those immediately adjacent. They also 
bear more tufts of spinelets, usually 5 to 6. 
Adambulacral plates are rather short, with a convex margin to furrow. Armature as follows: 
(1) A furrow series of 5 or 6 (rarely 4) delicate spinelets, united for over half their length by a thin 
web. They form a fan-shaped series, the median spinelet being slightly longer than the laterals. Some- ; 
times the adoral spinelet, or less commonly, the aboral, is about two-thirds the length of the others, 
which are nearly equal. (2) On actinal surface of the plate a group of about 10 spinelets, united by a 
web and disposed in a curvilinear series, which is more easily understood form the accompanying figure 
(pi. xxxvm, fig. 1) than from description. A portion of this series — that nearest furrow — is usually 
directed backward, covering the outer spinelets of the group. 
Mouth plates are fairly large, rather narrow outwardly. The armature consists of a marginal row j 
of about 8 flattened, blunt spinelets, the basal half constricted and united by a thin web. They increase 
jn size toward the inner angle, the innermost 3 to 4 spinelets being fairly stout, compressed and trun- 1 
cate. On actinal surface there is a double series of about 12 to 30 slenderer spinelets, extending ] 
lengthwise of the plate, or in a group of 5 or 6 parallel with furrow spinelets, the remainder, somewhat 
smaller and more delicate, being on the outer part of plate. There is much irregularity in the 
disposition of these spinelets. 
Actinal plates bear a regular and ornate comb of delicate spinelets, connected for two-thirds or 
three-fourths .their length by a thin but resistant web. The plates, and consequently the spines, 
decrease toward margin, and from the ambulacral furrow toward median interradial line. The inner- 
most plates bear a series of 10 to 14 spines. Midway to extremity of ray, adjacant to furrow, there are 
about 9, but midway on the interradial line there are but 7 or 8, considerably shorter. Near margin 
the number is further reduced to 5 or 6. The median spinelets are longest and all radiate, forming 
plamate series. 
a This genus has usually been called Palmipes. Palmipes, however, was not used by a post-Linnsean writer until a 
year after Anseropoda Nardo. It seems somewhat discouraging in the first years of the twentieth century to be obliged to 
call attention to the fact that Linck (1733), who first used Palmipes and who was quoted in the last extensive paper on 
European starfishes as the authority for the name, was in no way a binomial writer, and that consequently his so-called 
genera (!) have no place even if 1758 had not been agreed upon as the starting point of zoological nomenclature. For a 
statement of the facts in the present case see Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell in Annals of Natural History, ser. 6, vol. vii, 1891, p. 233. 1 
The Rev. Canon A. M. Norman (op. cit., p. 382) admits that Anseropoda has priority, but objects to its use because it ,5 
happens to be etymologically a hybrid. What would happen if all generic names which confess this fault were thrown 
out for the same reason? 
