ASTEROIDEA i79 



preservation or drying. Specimens from Sts. WS 80 and WS 97 are examples. Paxillae 

 carry usually 6-10 delicate but "pulpy" sheathed spinelets; R 73 mm., r 22 mm., 

 br 12-13 mm. Slenderer, less inflated rays among other things allow the inferomarginals 

 to stand out more prominently and alter the general appearance. When the ray is 

 strongly inflated the marginals of the proximal half or two-thirds of ray are hidden when 

 viewed directly from above, whereas in a slender-rayed form, such as that having 

 R no mm., br 17-19 mm. (St. WS 108), all or nearly all can be seen from above, and 

 stand out prominently on the sides of the ray. Such a specimen seems to belong to an 

 entirely different species from the large puffy example from St. WS 243. 



The stomach of a large specimen from St. WS 243 contained the remains of a 



Pteraster. 



Type locality. Challenger Station 308, south of Wellington Island, Chile, 

 50° 8' 30" S, 74° 41' W, 175 fathoms, blue mud. 



Distribution. Cape Horn region and Falkland Plateau, north on the Pacific side 

 to 50'' and on the Atlantic to 47° 28' ; 65-350 m., mud, sand. 



Solaster regularis subarcuatus Sladen 

 Solaster subarcuatus Sladen, 1889, p. 455, pi. 60, fig. 2; pi. 62, figs. 7, 8.— Doderlein, 1928, p. 296, 



pi. 12, fig. 4. 

 Solaster octoradiatus Ludwig, 1903, p. 25, pi. 3, figs. 21, 22.— Bell, 1908, p. n. 



St. 170. Off Cape Bowles, Clarence Island, 61° 25' 30" S, 53" 46' W, 242 m., rock, 2 specimens. 



Both specimens have 8 rays. The type has 9 rays; 5 specimens reported by Ludwig 

 had 8 rays and one had 7 rays. Bell's specimen, which I have in hand, is 8-rayed, as was 

 Doderlein's specimen. 



The larger of the 2 specimens has R 40 mm., r 14 mm. The abactinal paxillae are a 

 little larger than those of the type. The largest have 9 or 10 peripheral and 4-7 central, 

 blunt, denticulate spinelets. The papulae are not numerous in the close meshes of the 

 skeleton— usually 3 or 4 to a group. The mouth-plates each have about 9 marginal spines 

 of which the 3 inner are decidedly elongated. Bell's specimen from Coulman Island has 

 7 (R 31 mm.) while the small example from St. 170 also has 7 (R 10 mm.). The adam- 

 bulacral plates of this specimen have, proximally, 2 furrow spinelets, distally only i , 

 while the larger specimen has 5, 4, 3, 2, i, from base to extremity of ray. The transverse 

 subambulacral combs contain 5 or 4 stout spines, conspicuously longer than the 

 marginal. In the young specimen there are usually 4. 



Subarcuatus is obviously close to regularis. Indeed the resemblance is apparent from 

 Sladen's figures which stand side by side on PI. 60, and these represent but random 

 samples. When one observes the latitude of variation in regularis he is somewhat put to 

 it to discover wherein subarcuatus differs. Both " species" have forms with larger and 

 smaller paxillae ; both have the same general appearance and the same number of rays. 

 So far as is known subarcuatus does not grow so large as regularis ; there are 4 or 5, rather 

 than 6 or 7, subambulacral spines; and in comparison to the latter the furrow spinelets 

 are much shorter, especially in the Coulman Island specimen. In subarcuatus the 



