26 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



NOTES ON ASTRONYX LOVENI, MULLER. 



By W. ANDERSON SMITH, 

 Member of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



WHEN I first obtained a specimen of this most interesting 

 Starfish, from 90 fathoms in the Sound of Sleat, in the summer 

 of 1886, it was considered a most rare inhabitant of the 

 Scottish waters. Only one previously had apparently been 

 recorded, viz. from Lochinver. But Mr. Thomas Scott had 

 taken one the year previous in 70 fathoms off Peterhead, with 

 a disc 2 inches in diameter and 1 2 inch arms. This is of 

 much more robust and less characteristic dimensions than that 

 from the Sound of Sleat, in which the disc was only I inch 

 diameter, with two arms each 16 inches long, and three of 

 inferior length and robustness. This variation in the size of 

 the limbs is a marked characteristic of the species, and is con- 

 genital, and not owing to former severance and a new growth, 

 as so frequently happens amongst other stars. Indeed 

 Astronyx is not so brittle as its long slender limbs would 

 lead one to suppose, although, when a mass of them get 

 intertwined, it is difficult to obtain a perfect specimen ; as 

 noted by Mr. Sim when they are captured by the trawlers 

 off Aberdeen. There they seem to be very plentiful accord- 

 ing to the above authority, but I have no details as to their 

 special habitat on that coast. 



During my recent West Coast investigations, however, I 

 had the opportunity of obtaining this species from several 

 localities, and found them indeed, as is commonly the case 

 with all classes of life, to be plentiful enough once the proper 

 habitat was discovered. A marked peculiarity of our West 

 Coast lochs is the prevalence of the great Seapen, Funicnlina 

 qiiadrangularis, of noble proportions and great beauty. In 

 every case in which Astronyx Loveni were taken during this 

 summer they were in conjunction with these zoophytes, very 

 often twined around them, and apparently living upon the 

 polyps. 



In no case did we, however, meet with it south of Skye, 

 either on this or on former expeditions. We first met it in 40 to 



