The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. 285 



and truncate; the next is rather smaller in every way; the remainder 

 are very markedly smaller and are pointed. 



Colour in life, various shades of green, mottled with specks of red, 

 blue, yellow etc. 



P.F. 10004 Between River and Sebastian Bluff, nearer the former ; 

 low tide. 2 specimens; adult? 



Holotype, South African Museum, no. A 6420. 



These two specimens were sent to me with the label: " Asterias 

 coccinea. Bell's no. 10004. (Not seen by Bell)." There is also a note 

 saying: "These have not been actually seen by Bell, hut are taken 

 from a bottle with the same number as given by Bell in his Reports". 

 Of course, it is obvious from the appearance of the actinal surface 

 that these specimens are not coccinea. They are closely related to 

 both exigua and calcarata but are readily distinguished from either 

 of those species by the armature of the oral plates, and the very 

 coarse, nearly spherical granules of the abactinal surface. I find no 

 species as yet described to which they are any nearer and I have 

 therefore described them as new, but it is possible that they will 

 prove to be only a variety of exigua. 



* ASTERINA EXIGUA. 



Asterias exigua Lamarck, 1816. Anim. s. Vert., vol. 2, p. 554. 

 Asterina exigua Perrier, 1876. Arch. /ool. Exp., vol. 5, p. 222. 



This widely distributed Indo-Pacific species was collected at the 

 Cape of Good Hope nearly a century ago and has also been reported 

 from Natal. There are no specimens in the South African Museum 

 but the Museum of Comparative Zoology has a specimen labelled 

 Cape of Good Hope, received many years ago from the "Huguenot 

 Seminary, South Africa". It is reported in numbers by Doderlein 

 from Angra Pequena Bay. 



* ASTERINA CALCARATA. 



Asteriscus calcaratiis Gay, 1854. Hist. fis. pol. Chile. Zool., vol. 8, p. 427. 

 Asterina calcarata Perrier, 1876. Arch. Zool. Exp., vol. 5, p. 222. 



Koehler (1908, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh, vol. 46, p. 632) records 

 this species from two stations on the Cape Colony coast. He says 

 he has compared the South African specimens with others from 

 Chile and is sure they are identical. He also states that one speci- 

 men had 6 rays. Such a 6-rayed specimen is probably the basis 

 of the record of A. gunnii from South Africa. 



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