EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC ASTEROIDEA. 77 



This species has been so well-described and figured by Fisher (1911. Bull. 

 76 U. S. N. M., p. 24-29), and its variations so fully discussed, that nothing of 

 importance can be added. There seems to be no doubt of the identity of wal- 

 tharii and tenebrarius. The present seiies is of interest only because the largest 

 (R = 45 mm.) is somewhat larger than Fisher's specimens and because of the 

 range extension. The bathymetrical range is extended nearly 600 fathoms 

 while the geograpliical range is extended southward almost 800 miles. 



Station 4647. Eastern Tropical Pacific, 4° 33' S., 87° 42' 30" W., 2,005 fms. Bott. temp. 35.5°. Lt. gy. 



and br. glob. oz. 

 Station 4658. Eastern Tropical Pacific, 8° 30' S., 85° 35' 36" W., 2,370 fms. Bott. temp. 35.3°. Fne. 



gn. m., mang. nod. 

 Station 4666. Eastern Tropical Pacific, 11° 55' 30" S., 84° 20' 18" W., 2,600 fms. Bott. temp. 34.9°. 



Lt. gj'. oz. 

 Station 4672. Peru: southwest of Palominos Light House, 88 miles, 2,845 fms. Bott. temp. 35.2°. 



Fne. dk. br. infiis. m. 

 Station 4717. Eastern Tropical Pacific, 5° 11' S., 98° 56' W., 2,153 fms. Bott. temp. 35.2°. Rd. c, 



glob. oz. 



Twenty-four specimens. 



Eremicaster vicinus. 



Plate 2, fig. 7, 8. 



Pcnrcellanaster vicinm Ltjdwig, 1907. Zool . Anz., 31, p. 318. 

 Eremicaster vicinus Fisheh, 1907. Zool. Anz., 32, p. 14. 



Although Ludwig's description is very brief, it gives all the essential char- 

 acters of this species and a detailed account now seems quite superfluous. There 

 is a good series of specimens, ranging from 19 to 32 mm. in diameter and showing 

 Uttle diversitj^ in structure, save in the armature of the superomarginal plates; 

 in three specimens (one from 4670 and the only two individuals from 4672), 

 there are no spines on the superomarginals and these are the ones Ludwig has 

 called "var. inermis." One specimen has the terminal third of a ray curiously 

 doubled; seen from above, the abnormal width and the two terminal plates, 

 coalesced along their inner margins, are striking; on the lower surface there are 

 two distinct ambulacral furrows, each with six or seven pairs of tube-feet. 



Fisher (1911. Bull. 76 U. S. N. M., p. 30) says that "vicinus is insecurely 

 separated from pacificus" but I do not think he would feel so if he had compared 

 specimens. Besides the absence of actinal interradial spinelets, tricinus has two 

 characteristics which easily separate it from pacificus. One of these is found 

 in the adambulacral spines, which are very small (short and slender) and are 

 placed close together at the adoral end of the plate, while the other and more 

 conspicuous is in the spiaulation of the oral plates, which have only one, or 



