THE STARFISHES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
1093 
Valvaster striatus (Lamarck). 
PI. xxxvm, figs. 4, 4a. 
Asterias striata Lamarck, Animals sans Vetrebres, t. Ill, 1816, p. 253. 
Valvaster striatus, Perrier, Revision des Stell&rides, p. 112, q. v. for complete synonomy. 
This species was not taken by the Albatross in 1902, hut a specimen was secured in 1891 at station 
3469, south coast of Oahu Island, in 14 fathoms, on sand and coral. 
A very good figure, with critical and descriptive notes, is given by P. de Loriol in “Catalogue 
Raisonne des Echinodermes recueillis a l’lsle de Maurice” (II. Stellerides) , published in Memoirs 
de la Societe Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Geneve, t. xxix, 1885, p. 11, pi. vm. 
Rays 5. R=50 mm.; r=18.5 mm. R=2.8 r. Breadth of ray at base about 22.5 mm. General 
form depressed and flattened. Interbrachial arcs angular. The whole surface of the body is covered 
with short robust spines and spinelets, which are sharp on the abactinal surface but more blunt and 
often rounded, truncate, and flattened on the actinal. The characteristic feature of the species is a 
series of very large superomarginal, valvate pedicellarise, surrounded by acicular spinelets, bordering 
the abactinal area. 
Abactinal surface slightly inflated and the plates, which are arranged in regular network, leaving 
triangular, rather small, papular spaces, are not superficially evident in the alcoholic specimen. They 
are covered with sharp, conical spinelets, each of which is enveloped in a pulpy membraneous invest- 
ment, so that neighboring spinelets appear to touch, and do not appear isolated as in the dried spec- 
imen figured by de Loriol. A median radial and 2 parallel series of spinlets on either side are slightly 
more prominent than the others. The small papular areas have fewer pores than-de Loriol’ s speci- 
men, only about 3 to 5. The abactinal membrane is granulous. 
The superomarginal plates visibly define the border of the ray. Nearly all of them bear a long 
bivalved p'edicellaria which occupies the whole length of plate and is surrounded by small, sharp, 
slightly curved acicular spinelets invested by a pulpy membrane which obscures entirely the encased 
spinelets. In interbrachial angle and at extremity of ray, a few plates lack the pedicellaria and bear 
an enlarged spinelet surrounded by granules and small, sharp spinelets. 
Actinal plates bear each a flattened, stout, sharp, blunt, or truncate spine, much larger than the 
dorsal spinules. These spines, which are encased in membrane, are surrounded by 2 to 5 unequal, 
much smaller acicular spinelets, which are so sheathed in membrane as to appear broadly conical. The 
smallest of these spinelets is one-third the size of the largest, and there are likewise still smaller 
granules, especially in the interradial region. There are 5 longitudinal rows of the spines at base of 
ray, then 4 and 3, and on the outer third' of ray 2. Inferomarginal plates each bear a stout, tapering, 
flattened spine, larger than the actinal spines, surrounded by a number of membrane-invested small 
acicular spinelets, 1 or 2 of which are usually larger than the others. Rarely a second spine stands on 
the same plate with the first. In de Loriol’s specimen from Mauritius 2 spines were usual, and 
occasionally 3. Each adambulacral plate, clearly distinct from its neighbor, bears a furrow series of 
5 spinelets at base of ray, becoming reduced to 3 on the outer portion. They form a fan, the aboral 
spinelet being equal to the third and the spinelet between them a trifle longer, while the fourth and 
fifth are decreasingly shorter than third. They are united by membrane for one-half to two-thirds 
their length, and are slender, the longest being about 1.75 mm., the shortest 0.25 mm. On the actinal 
surface of plate stands a truncate, flattened, slightly tapering, much stouter, and longer (2.5 mm.) 
spine similar to those of actinal intermediate plates. Two or 3 granules and a small, sharp spinelet 
stand close to its base in the outer end of plate. On a number of the proximal plates of series a small, 
upright, blunt forficiform pedicellaria takes the place of the shortest spinelet. A very few plates have 
a sixth spinelet or granule added to the adoral end of the series. 
Madreporic body small, and situated nearer the center of disk than midway to margin. Stria- 
tions very fine. 
The specimen was partially dried after the characters had been noted in the alcoholic condition. 
In this way the granules of the abactinal surface became at once evident, and likewise a very few 
small forficiform pedicellaria;. The character of the abactinal surface agrees very well with de Loriol’s 
figures, except that the spines are a trifle stouter than in the Mauritius specimen, and, since our 
specimen is smaller, the papular pores, as already noted, are fewer. The actinal spines of the 
Hawaiian example are not so broadly truncate, but are frequently slightly tapering and even bluntly 
