REPORT ON THE ASTEROIDEA. 587 



■with numerous very fine striations, which radiate centrifugally, with considerable regu- 

 larity. 



Colour in alcohol, a bleached yellowish white ; the spinelets white. 



Locality.— Station 232. South of Yeddo, Japan. May 12, 1875. Lat. 35° 1 1' 0" N., 

 long. 139° 28' 0" E. Depth 345 fathoms. Green mud. Bottom temperature 41 °*1 Fahr. ; 

 surface temperature 64"'2 Fahr. 



Remarks. — Asterias (Stolasterias) stichantha is a large and striking form, altogether 

 unlike any other species in the genus. It may be at once distinguished by the isolated, 

 equally spaced, basally-wreathed spinelets, arranged in numerous longitudinal series. 



22. Asterias (Stolasterias) eustyla, n. sp. (PL CVI. figs. 5-8). 



Eays five. R = 60 mm. ; ?*= 7 mm. E>8 r. Breadth of a ray near the base, 8 to 9 mm. 



Rays elongate, comparatively robust, tapering slightly towards the extremity ; about 

 as high as broad, and subangular in section in consequence of the prominence of the 

 supero-marginal and median radial series. Disk very small and indistinctly defined, not 

 higher than the rays. Interbrachial arcs acute. 



The abactinal surface of the rays is bounded by a supero-marginal series of plates on 

 each side, each of which bears a single erect, rather robust, conical, pointed spinelet about 

 3 mm. in length, encircled at the base by a large, thick, semiglobular wreath of pedicel- 

 lariae, rendered more massive by the presence of membrane. The median abactinal line 

 of the ray is occupied by a precisely similar longitudinal series of equal-sized spinelets 

 with basal wreaths of pedicellarise, and in the interspace between the median and supero- 

 marginal series is a series — more or less interrupted — of exactly similar but rather smaller 

 spinelets, with basal wreaths. Papulae, which are large, delicate, and bag-like when 

 extended, occur in the narrow space between the wreaths of pedicellarise, and occupy also 

 the spaces where the intermediate series is interrupted. The lateral wall or space between 

 the supero-marginal series and the infero-marginal series is occupied only by large papula?, 

 and these are either isolated or in indistinct groups of two or three. The infero-marginal 

 plates form a conspicuous and regular longitudinal series, and each bears three spines 

 arranged in an oblique series, which stands at an angle of about 45 degrees to the direction 

 of the ray. These spines are robust at the base, flattened at the tip, and either truncate or 

 obtusely rounded. The outermost spine is larger and longer than any of the spines above 

 noticed on the abactinal surface, the median spine is rather smaller, and the innermost 

 spine, which is very near the adambulacral plates, is not more than half the size of the 

 outermost spine. On the outer side of the outermost spine is a large semiglobular tuft of 

 pedicellarias, similar to those above described, but it does not encircle the spine as a 

 wreath. Near the base of the innermost spine is a single large papula, and the series of 

 these separates the infero-marginal spines from the adambulacral plates. 



