Shell sublenticular, low, rounded above, less convex, sometimes nearly flat below; whorls six to seven, often obliquely rigid below the sutures, then with several revolving series of granules or vaulted scales; periphery sharply carinate, armed with strong, triangular, flattened spines which extend over the sutures to near the summit of the shell, there being about sixteen on the last whorl; base having strong radiating lamellae, which cross the five or six revolving tuberculous ridges; aperture transverse, rounded, channeled at the outer edge; umbilical region often excavated, but generally imperforate; ajmrture and columella silvery. Color white, yellowish, or light brown.
Height, 20; diameter, 37 mm. Another shell, height, 16; diameter, 60 mm.
Mayaguez Harbor; Puerto Real, Porto Rico; Culebra, West Indies; Florida Keys, etc.

Astralium phoebium (Roding, 1798) Longspine Starsnail
Distribution: Florida, Texas; West Indies; Bermuda; Brazil. Size: 50 to 64 mm.
Description: Color whitish to yellowish-brown, some species with bright orange around umbilical region; shell star shaped; sculpture of somewhat straight-sided whorls that have spiral rows of modular trian¬gular spines with largest spines at periphery; spire depressed but may be elevated; umbilicus chinklike, deep; base almost flat, with numerous wavy, radiating threads crossed by numerous spiral cords. Habitat: Usually shallow water in turtle grass beds. In Texas found at Stetson Bank. Depth range 0 to 91 m (300 ft).
Remarks: Short-spined specimens are mistakenly called Astraea brevispina (Lamarck, 1822). Another form whose spines are raised has been erroneously called A. spinulosa Lamarck, 1822. See Warmke and Abbott (1961); Rehder (1981); Redfern (2001).
Synonyms: A. phoebia Roding, 1798; A. longispina Lamarck, 1822.