The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. :><>.'! 



pentagonal, the sides being only very slightly concave. Dorsally very 

 similar to H. nobilis, but the radial paxillar areas are relatively nar- 

 rower, only about 23 mm. wide or less than one-third R. ; in nobilis, 

 they are about '-40 R. The narrow bands of spiracles running out 

 onto the interradial membrane are numerous and well-defined and 

 run clear to the margin. Actinally, the ambulacra are not at all petaloid 

 but the pedicels and ainbulacral plates and armature, including the 

 aperture papillae are very much like those of nobilis. The actinolateral 

 spines are very short, only about 11 mm. long, and from the sixth 

 to the twenty-fifth are subequal ; this gives a characteristic appearance 

 to the ambulacra. Oral plates short and wide, conspicuously projecting 

 distally and with lateral portions a little concave, so the margin 

 projects downward (in normal position of animal) a trifle ; on the 

 free margin of each plate are 4 (rarely 3) spines of which the inner- 

 most is quite small, the others moderate and subequal; at the inner 

 corner of each plate is a spine, conspicuously larger than the mar- 

 ginal spines; back of this is a similar spine, but a little larger; and 

 back of this again is a third spine, apparently the largest of all; 

 these three superoral spines are close together but they do not form 

 a straight series, as the middle one of the three is nearer the median 

 suture than are either of the others. Colour, in alcohol, very light 

 brown with a pink tinge. 



P.F. 16825. Cape Point N.E. by E. 3 / 4 E., 38 miles. 750-800 fms. 

 Gn. m. 1 specimen; adult. 



Holotype, South African Museum no. 644-7. 



This fine starfish is in excellent condition except that most of the 

 oral and adambulacral spines are broken. Apparently however they 

 were all sharp, though sacculate as usual. The relationship to nobilis 

 is evident but the armature of the oral plates is so different from 

 that described and figured by Sladen for the CHALLENGER'S fine 

 Antarctic species that the two forms cannot be conspecific. The 

 shorter actinolateral spines and the longer series of interradial spi- 

 racles are also characters of gennaens which cannot be ignored. 



ASTERIIDAE. 



This large family of starfishes, so common on the coasts of the 

 northern hemisphere, and especially on the Pacific coast of North 

 America, is represented by but few species in South African waters. 

 I fully concur in Verrill's decision that the group called "Stichaste- 

 ridae" is not of family rank and its members really belong in the 

 Asteriidae. Perhaps Coronaster belongs in the Pedicellasteridae rather 



