CLARK: JAPANESE AND EAST INDIAN ECHINODERMS. 281 



arms, aud the centre of disc claret-red, to a nearly uniform vermilion-red all over. 

 Most of the dried specimens were dirty yellowish, but on being washed with 

 alcohol the vermilion-red color returned to a greater or less degree in different 

 individuals and has not been lost by subsequent drying. The largest specimen 

 (300 mm.) from Amboina is the most uniform and the brightest vermilion. — 

 This species was found chiefly on bottoms where there was more or less vegetation 

 or in open places about coral reefs. 



Culcita novae-guineae. 



Miiller & Troschel, 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 38. Goniodiscus sebae Miiller & Troschel, 

 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 58. 



3 specimens, 80-130 mm. in diameter. Sorong, New Guinea. — 1 specimen, 

 75 mm. in diameter. Amboina. Barbour collection. 



The small series of Culcitas brought home by Mr. Barbour is of great interest 

 because they prove that the starfish hitherto known as Goniodiscus sebae is the 

 young of Culcita novae-guineae and not a distinct species closely related to the 

 ancestral stock from which Culcita has sprung, as Doderlein has so ably argued 

 (Semon's Zool. Forsch. Aust., 5, If. 4, p. 489-504). The specimen from Amboina 

 is clearly Goniodiscus sebae, agreeing not only with Miiller and Troschel's de- 

 scription, but with de Loriol's (1885. Mem. Soc. Phys., Geneve, 29, p. 48 ; 

 Plate 15, figs. 6-6e) description and figures, and with specimens in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology collection from the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. It can- 

 not, however, be separated in any way from the slightly larger young Culcita from 

 Sorong, which is certainly identical with the other two specimens. On the actinal 

 side the latter are exactly like Doderlein's (1896. Semon's Zool. Forsch. Aust., 

 5, If. 3, p. 301-322) figures (Plate 20, fig. 9) of C. novae-guineae, but abactinally 

 one is like C. n. plana (Plate 19, fig 1), while the other (the largest of all) is like 

 C. n. arenosa (Plate 19, fig. 5). Judging from the 54 Culcitas accessible to me, 

 it seems doubtful whether the varieties (or subspecies) of C novae-guineae, so 

 carefully worked out by Doderlein, are really sufficiently distinct to warrant their 

 recognition. — Mr. Barbour's specimens were collected about the reefs and were 

 of a yellowish-brown color, with something of an olive tint when alive. They 

 were all flat and more or less discoidal in life and showed no tendency to the 

 spherical form characteristic of many adult Culcitas. 



Gymnasteria carinifera. 



Asterias carinifera Lamarck, 1816. Anim. s. Vert., 2, p. 556. 

 Gymnasterias carinifera v. Martens, 1866. Arch. f. Naturg., 32 (1), p. 74. 



1 specimen, 130 mm. in diameter. Yellowish brown (dried). Sorong, 

 New Guinea. Barbour collection. 



