278 Annals of the South African Museum. 



as follows : Disk and rays flattened, the general form being distinctly 

 star-shaped but with very obtuse rays. R 5'5 mm. ; r = 3 mm. : 

 R = 1-8 r; br = 3 mm. Abactinal plates relatively few, tabulate, 

 with well-spaced, short rough spines; under a magnification of 40 

 diameters, they thus appear paxilliform. No madreporite is visible 

 but in each interradius is a small, bare, depressed area, covered 

 only by thin skin. Marginal plates 5 on each side of each ray, in 

 each series; all very much alike; they bear short, rough spinelets, 

 well-spaced as on the abactinal plates. Terminal plate short but 

 wide, roughly kidney-shaped, covered with little spinules, like the 

 abactinal plates. Actinal plates small and rather numerous, each 

 with 2-5 (usually 3) rough spinelets similar to those of the abactinal 

 plates but rather longer; the series next to the adambulacrals runs 

 nearly to the tip of the ray and the second runs to the fourth 

 inferomarginal ; the remaining two are very short and carry only 4 

 (or 3) and 2 (or 1) plates respectively. Adambulacral plates very 

 wide and short and very characteristic ; the adoral marginal corner 

 extends inward half-way across the furrow, and at the tip curves 

 abrubtly aborally, thus half-way encircling a large tube-foot with a 

 fairly well-developed sucker; on this furrow-projection of the plate 

 are three relatively long, rough spines, of which the middle one is 

 slightly largest and stands at the bend in the plate, another is at 

 the tip of the plate and the third is between the largest and the 

 furrow-margin ; on the actinal surface of each plate is an oblique 

 series of 3 or 4 spines the largest being nearest the furrow and 

 farthest from the mouth; the largest is equal to, or a trifle larger 

 than, the one on the bend of the plate, while the smallest is about 

 equal to the spines on the actinal plates. Oral plates of moderate 

 size, flat but distally rather abruptly raised; on each free margin 

 are four spines, the one at the tip of the jaw, much the largest, flat, 

 wide and truncate, the others progressively smaller, more cylindrical 

 and more slender; on the distal angle of each plate are two spines 

 like those on the actinal plates and proximal to them is a single 

 slightly larger spine. 



P.F. 13240. Cove Rock, near East London, N. 3 / 4 E., 5 miles. 

 43 fms. St., brk. sh. 1 specimen; very young. 



I know of no sea-star with the ambulacral furrow guarded as in 

 this specimen and I have little doubt it represents an undescribed 

 genus. But it is conceivable that with growth the adambulacral 

 armature would become more like that of Cycethra, and in any case 

 it seems unwise to base a new genus on so obviously immature a spe- 

 cimen. And in this opinion, I am glad to say, Dr. Fisher fully concurs. 



