330 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPAKATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



from below the iuferomarginal plates are well separated from each other ; they 

 Lave a marginal fringe of slender spiuelets like tliose of the paxillae ; the surface 

 of the plate carries half a dozen flat, pointed spines, 1-2 mm. long, with a number 

 of other smaller ones. Adambulacral armature of 3-4 spines in a single series, at 

 right angles to furrow ; innermost, smallest, sharp and slightly curved ; the next 

 is largest, 3 mm. long, straight (or nearly so) and blunt. Oral plates each with 

 4-6 spines, clustered at tip, and a similar number of variable size scattered on sur- 

 face. Madreponc plate small, lying between the two terminal paxillae of the 

 " palisade " series of two adjoining rays. Color (dry) : disc and median area 

 of rays pale gray with a yellowish tinge ; paxillae outside of " palisade " series, all 

 spines and entire lower surface more or less nearly white; there are several 

 indistinct blotches of a darker gray on upper surface of rays. 



The specimen described above and two others are in the M. C. Z. collection, 

 labeled "Chile or Sandwich Islands." As they were presented by Dr. W. H. 

 Jones, U. S. N., in April, 1874, and as most of the specimens received from him 

 at that time were from Chile and Peru, these Luidias are doubtless from the same 

 locality. This probability is rendered almost a certainty by the fact that the 

 M. C. Z. collection contains 14 specimens of what appears to be the same species, 

 from the Gulf of California, collected by W. J. Fisher. They are dry and in 

 mediocre or poor condition, and range in size from 11 = 32 to R = 10S mm. In 

 color they are all dirty yellowish, blotched above with blackish. Few of them have 

 the "palisades" as perfectly developed as in the type, but it is evident in every 

 specimen, even the smallest. It would seem, then, that phragma is a Panamic 

 species, and it is most likely that Dr. Jones's specimens were collected at Payta, 

 Peru. No species nearly allied is known from the Hawaiian Islands. 



Luidia bellonae. 

 C F. Liitken, 1865. Vid. Med. f. 1864, p. 133. 



This species reaches, under favorable conditions, a much larger size than has 

 been recorded. Liitken's types were 8 and 12 inches in diameter respectively, 

 which would indicate R = 110-160 mm. Meissner (1896) has recorded specimens 

 from R = 23.5 to R = 232 mm., the last being the largest specimen known 

 hitherto. But in the M. C. Z. collection there is a specimen from Talcahuauo, 

 Chile, in which R = 250 mm. and the rays are 45 mm. wide at base. Clearly, 

 then, bellonae is one of the largest starfishes kuown on the west coast of tropical 

 America. The color of dry specimens is like that of many Luidias, gray above, 

 deepest along the middle of each ray, and with more or less of a bluish cast, 

 and white or cream color beneath. Dr. Coker's notes refer to the color of the 

 living animal as simply "gray." This species has a wide distribution, for while 

 Liitken's types (one of them, at least) were from Guayaquil, "Verrill (1S67) 

 has recorded the species from Callao ; de Loriol (1S91) from Mazatlan, Mexico; 

 Meissner (1892) from Callao, and (1896) from Iquique and Talcahuauo; and Clark 

 (1902) from Albemarle Island, Galapagos. Meissner (1896) expresses the opin- 



