Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission, 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 
THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE STAR-FISH. 
By A. D. MEAD, Ph. D., 
Associate Professor of Comparative Anatomy , Brown University . 
The investigation of the habits and life-history of the star-fish has been carried 
on at the suggestion and under the auspices of the Rhode Island Commission of Inland 
Fisheries. The observations were made principally at the Kickeinuit River, Rhode 
Island, where a houseboat, moored over one of the oyster-beds, served as a floating 
laboratory. Through the courtesy of the U. S. Fish Commission in extending to 
me the privileges of the Woods Hole Station and in giving mo the use of one of the 
steam launches I was able to make observations upon the star fish in other portions of 
Narragansett Bay and to extend the work into Buzzards Bay. From oystermeu I 
have received valuable information and assistance, and on every occasion the kindest 
treatment. The report is presented in the form of questions and answers, the ques- 
tions being such as would be propounded by a practical oystermau, and intended to 
bring out information of value in combating the ravages of the star fish. This paper, 
in slightly different form, appears in the twenty-ninth annual report of the Commis- 
sioners of Inland Fisheries for the State of Rhode Island, January, 1S99. 
IDENTIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE STAR-FISH. 
I. Does the animal known to our fishermen as the star-fish or five-finger belong to 
one or to several species t 
It is evident that if there are two or more species artificial or natural agents 
destructive to one may prove quite harmless to the others. There are in Rarragan- 
sett Bay 4 species of star-fishes, out of the 800 or more which are known to occur the 
world over. They are: The common star- fish (Ast erias forbesii) ; the purple star fish 
[Asterias vulgaris)-, the blood star-fish [Cribrella sanguinolenta) ; the snake star fish 
( Ophiopholis aculeata). Only the first two species are considered in this report. The 
lust two are so distinctly different from each other and from the first two that there is 
no difficulty in identifying them; neither is harmful to the shell fish fisheries. 
The common star-fish and the related purple star vary so much with regard to color, 
shape of arms, size, number of species, etc., that the French naturalist Perrier has 
made five distinct species of Asterias to include those star-fish along our coast which 
according to American naturalists, L. Agassiz, Stimpson, and Verrill, belong to two 
species only. I have endeavored during the last year to ascertain whether some of 
these varieties were to be explained as a difference in sex, but have been unable to 
discover any such relation, and am not able to distinguish males from females except 
by the sexual products. 
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