452 



THE VOYAGE OF II. M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Chorological Sijnop>sis of the Species. 



1. Solaster endeca (Retzius), Forbes. 



Asterias aspera, 0. F. Miiller, 1776, Zool. Dan. Prodr., p. 234, No. 2833. 

 Asterias endeca, Eetzius, 1783, K Svensk. Vet.-Akad. Handl. Bd. iv. 237. 

 Asterias (Solasterias) endeca, Blainville, 1834, Manuel d'Actinologie, p. 241. 

 Stcllonia endeca, Agassiz, 1835, Mem. Soc. Sci. Nat. Neuchatel, t. i. p. 192. 

 Solaster endeca, Forbes, 1839, Mem. Wern. Soc. vol. viii. p. 121. 

 Solaster (Endeca) endeca, Gray, 1840, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. vi. p. 183. 



Locality.— Station 48. South-west of Halifax, Nova Scotia. May 8, 1873. Lat. 

 1 4' 0" N., long. 64° 5' 0" W. Depth 51 fathoms. Rock. Surface temperature 



43 



38°'0 Fahr. 



2. Solaster paxillatus, n. sp. (PL LXXI. figs. 1-3 ; PI. LXXII. figs. 1 and 2). 



Rays nine. R=155 mm.; r = 50 mm. R>3 r. Breadth of a ray at the base 

 about 28 mm. 



The rays are elongate, attenuate, and tapering, having a more or less subcylindrical 

 appearance, the tumidity of the sides hiding the infero-marginal paxillse altogether when 

 the starfish is viewed from above. The disk is large, and its abactinal surface is capable 

 of a considerable amount of inflation, as is also the basal portion of the rays. The actinal 

 surface of the disk is convex and prominent round the mouth, that of the rays is plane. 

 The interbrachial arcs are acute, but were probably slightly rounded when the abactinal 

 area was inflated during life. 



The abactinal surface is beset with small, low, uniform, paxilliform groups of spinelets, 

 which consist of ten to twelve short equal spinelets, standing almost erect, compressed 

 together and imbedded in a membranous mass, the tips of all the spinelets being level. 

 The paxillaB, w r hich are exceedingly numerous, are closely placed, and the general appear- 

 ance of the abactinal surface to the naked eye at a short distance thereby produced is 

 that of a coarsely granular surface. Large single papulae occur in the interspaces. No 

 definite order of arrangement is distinguishable in the paxillae, except at the sides of the 



