57G THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER 



9. Asterias cunninghami, Perrier. 



Asteriax Cunninghami, Perrier, 1875, Revis. Stell. Mus., p. 75 (Archives Je Zool. exper., t. iv. p. 339). 



Localities. — Station 313. Near the Atlantic entrance to the Strait of Magellan. 

 January 20, 1876. Lat, 52° 20' 0" S., long. 67° 39' 0" W. Depth 55 fathoms. Sand. 

 Bottom temperature 47°'8 Fahr. ; surface temperature 48°"2 Fahr. 



Station 315. Port William, Falkland Islands. January 26, 1876. Lat. 51° 40' 0" S., 

 long. 57° 50' 0" W. Depth 12 fathoms. Sand, gravel. Surface temperature 50°"0 Fahr. 



B. Asterias sulcifera group : Subgenus Cosmasterias, nov. 



10. Asterias (Cosmasterias) tomidata, n. sp. (PI. CV~. figs. 8-10). 



Pays five. R = 92 mm.; /-=19 mm. R<5>\ Breadth of a ray near the base, 

 21 mm. Larger examples are in the collection, which measure about K= 110 mm., but 

 are too much contorted in their present state for careful measurement. 



Pays elongate, robust, inflated, tapering gradually from the base to the pointed ex- 

 tremity, "which is rather attenuate. Disk rather small, more or less inflated, with deep 

 contracted sulci on the outer part of the median interradial lines, the rays appearing 

 closely crushed together at their base, and causing the disk to seem smaller than is really 

 the case. At the base of the ray there is sometimes a transverse depression, emphasising 

 the distinction of disk and ray. The interbrachial arcs are acute. 



The abactinal area is covered with rather small plates, amongst which five regular 

 longitudinal series may be defined, and two less regular series on each side of the median 

 radial series. The median radial series forms a slightly raised rib which proceeds from 

 the disk to the extremity, and each of the plates bears three or four small, short, trun- 

 cate spinelets, with crowded membranous vesicles at their base. These spinelets are not 

 definitely arranged, although their general disposition forms an irregular transverse series. 

 Small isolated forcipiform pedicellarise are present with each group. On the small plates 

 which succeed the median radial series there are not more than one or rarely two 

 spinelets, and small isolated forcipiform pedicellariae. Owing to the small size and the 

 irregularity in position of these plates, the spinelets in this region have a tendency to form 

 an indistinct reticulation. The plates of the two succeeding series, which form regular 

 longitudinal lines along the ray, may bear two or three spinelets, accompanied by isolated 

 forcipiform pedicellariae. Between the outermost series of these plates and the adambu- 

 lacral plates there are at the base of the ray about four longitudinal series of small con- 

 tingent plates, which bear larger and more robust spines than elsewhere on the test. At 

 the base of the ray these actinal spines form transverse series of four, but doubling is not 

 unfrequent, and the arrangement shows a tendency to fall into oblique pairs ; and on the 



