Linckia nodosa Perrier 1875

Linckia nodosa Perrier

Linckia nodosa Perrier, 1875c:417; 1884:226.–Sladen, 1889:409, 786.–Fisher, 1906:1088.–Bell, 1884:509.–Caso, 1962:72, fig. 26.–Downey, 1968:42.

Linckia formosa Mortensen, 1933a:430, fig. 10b, pl. 22: figs 2–4.

Linckia bullisi Moore, 1960:414, fig. 1.

Non Linckia nodosa.–Verrill, 1915:93 [see L. bouvieri].

This is a much less variable species than L. guildingii; I have never seen specimens with other than five arms, of approximately equal length. The disc is small and the arms moderately long, slender, cylindrical, tapering, and blunt tipped. The dorsal plates are irregularly arranged, and many are enlarged and tumid. The papular areas are inconspicuous, none below the inferomarginals, a series between the inferomarginals and the superomarginals, and about four irregular series on the abactinal surface. There are 2–8 pores per area. The superomarginal and inferomarginal plates are in regular, nearly equal rows, with, occasionally, a few of the superomarginals enlarged and tumid. The marginals may or may not bear a central small tubercle or enlarged granule. The actinal surface is plane, with 2 or 3 rows of regular, rectangular actinal plates, only one row extending to the end of the arm.

All plates are covered with a fine, dense coat of small granules, those of the actinal surface slightly larger than those of the abactinal surface. The adambulacral furrow spines are two, one broad, blunt, and flat, and the other slender and less blunt; behind is a single thick, heavy, granule-like subambulacral spine. The mouth plates are armed with two slender and two broad, square-tipped, flattened spines at the apex, and behind them are two broader, square, flat spines. The madreporite (when present) is flat and inconspicuous, with gyri few and deep. The oculars are prominent, raised, rounded, and bare. There are no pedicellariae.

This species has undergone all kinds of taxonomic vicissitudes; Verrill (1915) confused it with L. bouvieri, H. L. Clark (1921) synonymized it with L. bouvieri, and Mortensen (1933a) and Moore (1960) overlooked it entirely. Perrier (1875c) based his description of this species on “Deux individus de la collection Michelin. Localite inconnu.” The Michelin collection was a wide-ranging one, and contained many specimens from the western Atlantic, as well as from other parts of the world. It was acquired by the Paris Museum in 1868. Perrier indicates that quite a few specimens were without locality labels. Fortunately, specimens identified as L. nodosa by Perrier himself are in the collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard.

This species ranges, apparently, from Florida to Brazil and St. Helena, in 62–475 fathoms.

MATERIAL EXAMINED.—No data, probably collected by the Oregon (1) [R=36 mm, r=7 mm, Rr=1:5]. Silver Bay Station 2010 (2) [R=27 mm, r=5 mm, Rr=1:5].