REPORT ON THE ASTEROIDEA. 429 



The ambulacral tube-feet are crowded and form four alternating rows. They have a 

 more or less button-like fleshy termination. 



The terminal plate is small, smooth, and rounded anteriorly. 



I have failed to detect the presence of pedicellarise of any kind in this starfish. 



Colour in alcohol, a light brownish yellow, excepting the smooth naked primary plates 

 and median radial plates, which are white. The elongate spines of the marginal aud 

 actinal intermediate plates are white. 



Locality. — Station 204. Off Tablas Island, Philippine group. November 2, 1874. 

 Lat. 12° 43' 0" N., long. 122° 9' 0" E. Depth 100 fathoms. Green mud. Surface 

 temperature 84°'0 Fahr. 



Remarks. — Pholidaster squamatus is nearly related to Pholidaster distinctus, and 

 the differences are discussed in the description of that species. These two remarkable 

 forms are altogether unlike any other starfish with which I am acquainted. 



2. Pholidaster distinctus, n. sp. (PI. LXVII. fig. 7). 



Rays five. R = 70 mm.; r= 7'25 mm. R > 9'5 r. Breadth of a ray near the base, 

 7 "25 mm. 



Although this form is very nearly allied to Pholidaster squamatus, it appears to be a 

 well-marked species. Its general habit, however, accords so closely with the preceding 

 description that it seems to me more satisfactory to give a comparative review of the 

 points wherein the two differ than a loug description, which would be in a large measure 

 a repetition of what has gone before. 



The general form of the rays is the same, but in Pholidaster distinctus the disk is not 

 higher than the base of the rays aud is not convex. The median radial series of plates 

 are distinctly convex, forming a broad slightly elevated band along the ray. The breadth 

 of the median radial series is rather greater than in Pholidaster squamatus. The appear- 

 ance of the disk is very different in consequence of the under-basals being exposed, and 

 nearly as large as the primary radials ; the median radial series of plates thus extending 

 uninterruptedly from the dorso-central plate to the extremity. Smooth basal plates, 

 margined by scales, are also present. The supero-marginal plates are in like manner 

 naked and margined only by a single series of scales on their outer margin. This pro- 

 duces a very strongly marked superficial difference between the two forms, as the supero- 

 marginal plates in Pholidaster squamatus are entirely masked by scales. The lateral 

 spines and the large single spines on the actinal intermediate plates are relatively smaller 

 in Pholidaster distinctus than in Pholidaster squamatus. Furthermore, there are not 

 more than two longitudiual series of spines borne on the actinal intermediate plates in 

 the former, whereas there are three in the latter, and one of these is often small and 

 aborted on the outer part of the ray. 



In the armature of .the adambulacral plates the spinelets on the ridge of the prominent 



