On a star fish (.Asterias grønlandica) 
which hatches its young in its stomach. 
(Preliminary note.) 
By 
Ingvald Lieberkind. 
(With 4 text-figures ) 
By the courtesy of Dr. T h. M o r t e n s e n 1 got some time ago 
some specimens of Asterias grønlandica for anatomical investigation. 
On opening the first specimen I found the stomach full of very 
young star-fishes, which, however, did not seem to have taken any 
harm from their curious place of residence. 
I thought, of course, at once that it was a “cannibal“ star-fish, 
which had eaten some of its smaller relations, just before it was 
caught and that it was on account of this, that the young ones had 
not been attacked by the gastric juice. On opening the next spec¬ 
imen, I found also here a similar case, only it was this time not 
young ones but eggs. This would seem to indicate that the brood 
had not come there accidentally. But in order to get full under- 
standing of the facts it was necessary to examine a larger number 
of specimens. 
Dr. Mortensen with great readiness placed the material of 
this species in the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen at my dis- 
posal. — For this favour as well as for much good advice I may 
bring Dr. Mortensen mv most respectful and cordial thanks. 
I have then opened a great number of specimens of Asterias 
grønlandica and the result of these examinations is as follows: 
In practically all the mature female specimens which I opened, 
the stomach was found full of either eggs or more or less devel- 
oped 'young, while on the contrary this was never the case with 
male specimens. 
