THE STARFISHES OF THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
1105 
In 1894 Perrier (op. cit.) divided this group into 3 genera: Coscinasterias Yerrill (type, calamaria), 
Polyasterias Perrier (type, by inference, tenuispina), Stolasterias Sladen, emended (type, glacialis!). 
In 1896 a he added another genus, Distolasterias (type, stichantha Sladen), for the 5- or 6-ray ed species, 
with 2 adambulacral spines to-a plate. Since Asterias tenuispina had already been made the type of a 
subgenus, Polyasterias is a synonym pure and simple of Stolasterias Sladen (s. s. ); while glacialis, 
having served as the type of Marthasterias & Jullien, does not need another name. This renaming of 
previously named genera has unnecessarily confused this group of species. Whether we have merely 
a subgenus of Asterias, a genus, or four genera is a matter of opinion. In this paper I have taken the 
middle course, and have regarded Perrier’s genera as subgenera of Coscinasterias. They will, in this 
relation, stand as follows: 
Genus Coscinasterias Yerrill, 1869. 
Subgenus Coscinasterias Verrill, 1869; type, Asterias calamaria Gray. 
• Subgenus Stolasterias Sladen 1889, restricted; type, Asterias tenuispina Lamarck (= Polyasterias of 
Perrier) . 
Subgenus Marthasterias Jullien, 1878; type, Asterias glacialis 0. F. Muller, subnomine M. foliacea 
|(= Stolasterias Perrier nec Sladen). 
Subgenus Distolasterias Perrier, 1896; type Asterias ( Stolasterias ) stichantha Sladen. 
Subgenus DISTOLASTERIAS Perrier. 
Distolasterias Perrier, R6s. Campag. Sei. du Prince du Monaco, fasc. XI, 1896, p. 34. 
Coscinasterias (Distolasterias) euplecta, new species. 
PI. XLI, figs. 4, 4a-c; Pi. XLII, figs. 1-4. 
Rays 5. R = 88 mm.; r = 10 mm. R = 8.8 r. Breadth of largest ray at base, 13 mm. Height of 
ray near base,' 14-15 mm. 
Rays robust, fairly elongate, tapering to a bluntly pointed extremity; higher than broad, at least 
in proximal two-thirds. In section each ray would be pentagonal, the broadest face being the actinal. 
Sides between ventrolateral and superomarginal spines perpendicular. Either side of the abactinal 
surface slopes upward toward the median radial series of spines. Disk small, lower than the median 
radial line of rays. Rays appear constricted at base, and are further marked off from the disk by a 
sort of transverse sulcus. Abactinal surface of disk convex. Interbrachial arcs very acute. 
The abactinal surface of rays is bounded on either side by a dorsal marginal series of plates, either 
lateral sloping face of the abactinal area being of greater width than the perpendicular sides of the -ray. 
.Every alternate plate of the superomarginal series bears a single robust, rigid, sharp, conical, fairly 
slender spine, 3 to 4 mm. in length, which is encircled at the base with a prominent cushion or wreath 
of closely packed pedicellarise covered with membrane. The median abactinal line of the ray is 
occupied by a precisely similar longitudinal series of subequal spinules which decrease gradually in 
length toward the tip of the ray, and are also surrounded at the base by a wreath of pedicellariae. On the 
outer part of the ray the wreaths touch in alcoholic specimens, but on the proximal Half they are 
always separated by about 2 mm. In the interval between the median radial and superomarginal 
series of spinel ets there maybe from. 1 to 7 widely separated, exactly similar but smaller spinules, 
each with a basal wreath, disposed in a longitudinal Series. On one large ray there are hone whatever. 
Papulae large, sac-like, delicate. They extend in a longitudinal series of groups (3 or 4 to 8 in each 
group) on either side of the median radial series of spines, with another similar series just above each 
superomarginal row of spines. A very irregular series occurs scattered between these two, but there 
are but 2 series of papular “ pores” to either side of the abactinal area. There is a central spinule on 
the disk, 2 radial spinules near base of ray, and 1 interradial spinule. There are also 5 irregular 
groups of papulae between the central and basal plates, and among them are a number of large forfici- 
form pedicellariae. The lateral, perpendicular face of the ray is occupied by a series of papulae in 
groups of 4 to 6. The general surface of the rays and disk is covered with a thin pulpy and slick but 
tough membrane, marked by numerous irregular, crosswise anastomosing lines of darker color, which 
appear to be very small furrows, possibly sensory in function. 
aContrib. 9, l’Etude des Stellfirides de l’Atlantique Nord. <R£s. Campag. Sci. du Prince du Monaco, fasc. xi, 1896, -p. 34. 
» b Marthasterias foliacea Jullien, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1878, p. 141. Equivalent to Asterias glacialis, according to Sladen 
and Ludwig. 
