The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. 275 



evident. Madreporite distinct but small, 3 mm. across ; rather spongy. 



Actino-lateral areas with numerous parallel furrows running to 

 margin and even over the margin onto the upper side; no spines or 

 tubercles anywhere. Adambulacral plates with an inner series of 3 

 or often 4 sharp spines, 1-3 mm. long, sacculate, the saccules ex- 

 tending far beyond the spine-tip ; and an outer series of 3, rarely 4, 

 similar but stouter spines, enclosed in a thick, fleshy sack and forming 

 a low, racquet-shaped appendage, 3-4 mm. high and 2-5 mm. wide. 

 Oral plates very thick but flat with no superoral spines or tubercles: 

 at the inner tip of each plate is a rather stout, sacculate, nearly 

 horizontal spine; along the free margin of each plate is a series of 

 similar but longer and stouter, vertically placed spines, united with 

 each other and with the plate itself by skin. Feet large in two series. 

 Colour uniformly dull, deep pink; feet brown. 



P.F. 19003. South from Cape Infanta, Cape Colony, 36 49' S., 

 2114'E., 560 fins. Gn. s. 1 specimen; adult, 



Holotype, South African Museum No. A 6448. 



This remarkable sea-star was unfortunately preserved in formalin 

 and it is evident that some decalcification has taken place. It is 

 however impossible to determine now how much of the sacculate 

 appearance of the adambulacral and oral spines is due to decalcili- 

 cation and how much is natural. It is also uncertain how much of 

 the absence of a dorsal skeleton, and to what degree the sponginess 

 of the marginal plates, is artificial. There is however little doubt 

 as to the generic position of this notable specimen, as it agrees so 

 well in its main features with Chondraster yrandis Yerrill, which 

 occurs in the northern Atlantic, southeast of New England, in 

 220-538 fms. The South African species differs from the genotype 

 however in the wider papular bands, the greater reduction of the 

 skeleton, the absence of marginal tubercles, and particularly in the 

 armature of the adambulacral plates. In grandis there are only two 

 spines in the inner series. The two species apparently differ also 

 in colour, as the northern form is red above and yellow beneath, 

 while the southern species seems to be unicolorous. This may of 

 course be only an individual matter. 



OPH1DIASTERIDAE. 



This is another tropical family and its inclusion in the present 

 report is due chiefly to the fact that four species are listed by Bell 

 in the ALERT Report (1884) as having been taken at Mozambique. 

 One of these is represented in the South African collection before 



