400 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



There is an example of this species in the collection made during the "Porcupine" 

 Expedition, but no record of the locality or depth is given. It is perhaps the starfish 

 referred to by Sir Wy ville Thomson 1 as " a fine Scytaster, probably identical with the 

 Asterias canariensis of d'Orbigny." This erroneous view of the identity of the Asterias 

 longipcs of Retzius with the Asterias canariensis of d'Orbigny had been previously sug- 

 gested by Liitken,- and the form was ranked by him as a Scytaster. There is no other 

 example belonging to this family in the " Porcupine " collection, received by me. 



The starfish which bears Gray's name of Astropccten longipcs in the British Museum 

 is a Chmtaster longipcs; and there appears to be little doubt that this is the form named 

 by Gray, notwithstanding the contradictory character of some of the statements in his 

 short diagnosis of the species. 



Subfamily Linckiin.£, Sladen, 1888. 

 Genus Fromia, Gray. 



Linckia (pars), Muller and Troschel, Monatsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, April 1840, 



p. 103. 

 Fromia, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1840 (December), voL vi. p. 286. 

 Scytaster (pars), Miiller and Troschel, System der Asteriden, 1842, p. 34. 



This genus was removed from the Linckiidae by Viguier, 3 and placed in his family 

 Goniasteridse ; I prefer, however, to revert to Perrier's classification of the form amongst 

 the Linckiidae. The genus is essentially an inhabitant of the tropics, and the type species 

 may be regarded as a common form. 



Chorology of the Genus Fromia. 



a. Geographical distribution: — 



Indian Ocean : Three species between the parallels of 30° N. and 30° S. 



Fromia milleporella, from the Red Sea, Mauritius, Madagascar, 

 Ceylon, and extending into the Eastern Archipelago and Pacific. 

 Fromia tumida, from Ceylon. Fromia indica, exact locality 

 unknown ; recorded as " mers de l'lnde." 



Eastern Archipelago : Two species between the parallels of 10° N. and 10° S. 

 Fromia milleporella, from the Moluccas and Amboina (fide de 

 Loriol), extends into the Indian Ocean and also into the Pacific. 

 Fromia monilis, from Amboina. 



1 Depths of the Sea, p. 171. 



2 Videnskab. Medd. naturh. Foren. i KjQbenhavn, for 1S64, p. 169. 



3 Archives de Zool. exp'er., 1878, t. vii. p. 166. 



