F. JEFFKBY BELL. 



pointed out that the closely packed arrangement of the podia, and the distinctness of 

 the two rows of marginal plates are, on Mr. Sladen's basis of classification of Starfishes, 

 mutually destructive ; but the well-known observations of Prof. Ludwig on Echinaster 

 sepositus justify us in supposing that we have here a case of retarded disappearance of 

 the marginals ; the crowding of the podia appears to lie a much more important 

 morphological character ; but the union of these two strikes, I think, a final blow at 

 the current classification, against which Prof. Ludwig has already raised his voice, and 

 the adoption of which by MM. Delage and Herouard in their " Zoologie Concrete " 

 came as a great surprise to me. 



HEURESASTER* HODGSON i. 

 (Plate III.) 



Two specimens of a very fine starfish were taken at about 25 fathoms while in 

 Winter Quarters ; they appear to me to form the type of a new genus, as to the 

 general position of which there can be little doubt ; a still larger specimen was taken 

 from McMurdo Bay at 2 fms. 



It has somewhat the appearance of Porania, but has, in the larger examples, spines 

 in the interambulacral actinal areas. Prof. Perrier defines the Poraniidae as follows : 

 " Squelette masque par les teguments ; margiuales apparentes, mais formant au corps 

 uu bord tranchant ; squelette ventral forme de se'ries de plaques allant de chaque 

 adambulacraire a une marginale, squelette dorsal reticule." 



I have invented for it a name which will remind the student both of the name of 

 the ship, and of its indefatigable biologist. 



The larger specimens may be thus described : Arms long, tapering to a rather fine 

 point, R is about = 3. The upper surface is smooth and soft to the touch, and has 

 papulae, in ill-defined areas, spread over the whole of it ; the edge is quite sharp, 

 forming almost a ledge, and made up by a large number of small supero- and infero- 

 marginals. The lower interambulacra covered with some eight rows of small regularly 

 set plates covered with rather coarse granules, and, in the angle, with short spines 

 which give a hairy appearance to these areas. The ambulacral groove is bounded by 

 rows of four or five spines, of which the outermost is small and the innermost spatulate 

 and fluted at its free end. The podia are stout. At each oral angle there is a huge 

 spine, the distal third of which is glossy. These specimens are flat, but the smallest 

 example has the disc arched, and this is probably more natural 



R = 200 r = 70. 

 R = 130 r = 50. 

 R = 90 r = 30. 



Accepting Prof. Perrier's family diagnosis of the Poraniidae, we may make the 

 generic diagnosis of Heuresaster: Abactinal surface only invested by integument, 



discovery. 



