296 Annals of the South African Museum. 



nearly to the tip of the ray; proximally they are close together and 

 there is one for each adambulacral plate but distally they are more 

 and more widely spaced and there is only one for every other adam- 

 bulacral ; these plates carry a central tuft of slender spinelets; remainder 

 of the interradial area covered by 812 similar but smaller plates, 

 each with a central tuft of long slender spinelets. Adambulacral 

 plates two to each inferomarginal, as a rule, short, moderately wide, 

 well-spaced, the spaces often wider that the length of the plates; 

 each plate carries on its furrow-margin 4 long slender spines, the 

 relative lengths of which it is very hard to determine as they are 

 all more or less broken ; from the middle of the ray on, there are 

 usually only 3 spines and near the arm-tip there are only 2; on the 

 actinal surface of each adambulacral plate is a series of 4 (or 3 or 2) 

 similar but slightly stouter spines, arranged in an oblique series cor- 

 responding to the width of the plates; these spines are also generally 

 broken. Oral plates large rounded, much swollen along the suture 

 distally; the margin of each carries 8 or 9 slender spines of which 

 the one at tip is longest and stoutest; on the sutural swelling is a 

 series of about 4 similar but stouter spines, the innermost largest. 

 Membranes cover the actinal plates and spines, but they are thin 

 and unite the spines with each other very slightly. Tube feet large, 

 with well developed suckers. Colour yellowish-brown (dry) with a 

 more or less pinkish cast in alcoholic specimens. 



P.F. 2798. Vasco de Gama Peak, Cape Peninsula, N. 71 E., 

 18 miles. 230 fms. St. 1 specimen; young. 



P.F. 15060. Lion's Head, Cape Town, S.E. > /4 S., 50 miles. 230 fms. 

 Gr. s. 2 specimens; adult. 



Holotype, South African Museum no. A 6426; P.F. 15060. 



The discovery of a typical Lophaster in South African waters is 

 very interesting, and the interest is increased by the fact that it is 

 much nearer to L. furcilliger Fisher of the eastern North Pacific 

 ocean than it is to L. stellans Sladen from the western coast of 

 Patagonia. It differs from stellans in the body-form, the length of 

 the paxillar and adambulacral spinelets and the much more numerous 

 actino-lateral plates. From furcilliger it is more difficult to separate 

 it, but the actinal intermediate areas are distinctly larger, four furrow 

 spines are more generally present and the abactinal skeleton appears 

 to be much stouter. From antarcticus Koehler, it differs in the much 

 more numerous adambulacral plates, in having only one actino-lateral 

 plate to each inferomarginal and in the armature of the oral plates. 



The young specimen from 2798 has R only a little more than 

 20 mm. long; the rays are flatter, blunter and less tapering; the 



