2 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 8 



to each other. Ventral fnterradial areas covered with scales. Genital slits 

 very small. No tentacle scales or pores. Three pairs of oral papillae; two 

 outer pairs more or less vertical to the jaw. 



This new genus resembles some of the small species of Amphiura in 

 the contour of the disk, in the superficial appearance of the disk-plates, 

 and in the shortness of the arms. It differs, however, in having 3 pairs 

 of oral papillae as in Amphiodia and in the presence of 15-20 polelike 

 spines on the disk. It also lacks tentacle pores and scales; presumably 

 the tentacles are themselves wanting. 



Amphicontus minutus Hill, new species 



Description. — Disk diameter, 2 mm. ; arm length, 6 mm. Disk rather 

 thick and heav)^, covered with swollen plates. The central plate slightly 

 pentagonal with rounded angles, surrounded by five rounded plates of 

 equal size separated from one another by minute interstitial plates or 

 scales. Interradial plates, 8-10 or more, the most proximal bearing a 

 strong, blunt, vertical, polelike spine which marks the proximal, median 

 point of the interradial space; the other plates, more or less symmetrically 

 arranged ; of the two outermost each has a blunt, polelike spine, making 

 10 polelike spines along the complete margin of the disk. Two j'^oung 

 paratj'pes have a small spine adjoining the longer spine on its radial side, 

 making 10 long, inner spines and 10 short, outer spines in the interradial 

 areas of the disk-margin. No other important differences have been noted 

 m the study of the 6 paratypes. 



Radial shields prominent, less than half the disk radius in length, 

 longer than wide, irregularly oval, in close contact along the straight 

 radial margins; interradial margins convex but irregular; distal margins 

 convex. 



Dorsal armplates somewhat pentagonal with rounded corners, broader 

 than long, with a concave proximal and a convex distal surface to the 

 plate. 



Ventral interradii covered with small, overlapping scales. Oral pa- 

 pillae, three pairs: innermost, thick, blunt, rounded triangular, not 

 closely in contact with each other; the middle and distal pairs are erect, 

 flattened, bluntly pointed, the width at the base about half the height, 

 the distal pair wider. Two blunt and rounded teeth on each jaw. Oral 

 shields pentagonal or diamond shaped, approximately as wide as long, 

 with proximal angle most acute, distal angles rounded. Adoral shields 



