ASTEROIDEA 259 



St. MS 67. Same, 38 m., 3 specimens. 

 St. MS 71. Same, 110-60 m., 4 specimens. 

 Cumberland Bay, South Georgia, 6 specimens. 

 Borge Bay, South Orkneys, fish trap, i specimen. 



Koehler (1923) has described and figured this species. His fig. 5 (pi. 3) of a dried 

 specimen shows the reticulate skeleton and the larger meshes just above the supero- 

 marginal plates. At base of ray there are equally large intermarginal intervals. Both may 

 be wider than in Koehler's figure. The rest of the abactinal reticulum is smaller, 

 irregular, and the skeletal bars are slender — 2 or 3 slender secondary plates uniting the 

 mostly 3-lobed primaries. There is no differentiated carinal series. The mostly dipla- 

 canthid inferomarginal plates are adjacent to adambulacrals except at base of ray where 

 a short series of inconspicuous actinals is interpolated. These sometimes carry a single 

 spine in line with the 2 inferomarginals (South Georgia), but may be mostly spineless 

 (South Orkneys). In the South Georgia specimens the superomarginal spinelets 

 (usually I to a plate) are subequal to the abactinal and conspicuously smaller than the 

 inferomarginals. In the example from South Orkneys (R 50 mm.) they are larger- 

 intermediate between the abactinals and the spatulate truncate inferomarginal spines, of 

 which the proximal plates carry 2 and the distals usually i. The integument of this 

 specimen is distinctly thicker and more verrucose than in South Georgia examples. In 

 the latter the spinelets are all distinct as shown in Koehler's fig. 3, while in the South 

 Orkney form the intricate folds of skin are flush with ends of spinelets and occupy all 

 the space between. They completely hide numerous crossed pedicellariae. The specimen 

 resembles an Anasterias or a Lysasterias. 



Typical specimens have sporadically triplacanthid adambulacrals. 

 Distribution. Shag Rocks; South Georgia, low tide to about 160 m. ; South Orkneys, 

 shallow water; Palmer Archipelago, 160-335 ^• 



Neosmilaster steineni (Studer) 



Asterias steineni (Studer), 1885, p. 152, pi. i, figs. 4a, b. 



Diplasterias steineni Perrier, 1891, p. 84. — Koehler, 1912, p. 20, pi. i, figs. 4, 7, 10. 

 Podasterias steineni Koehler, 1917, p. 26; 1920, p. 41; 1923, p. 30, pi. 3, figs. 8, 9. 

 Neosmilaster steineni Fisher, 1920, p. 237. 



St. 159. South Georgia, 53° 52' 30" S, 36° 08' W, 160 m., rock, i specimen. 



St. WS 824. Falkland Islands, 52° 29I' S, 58° 27^' W, 146-137 m., 9 specimens. 



St. WS 825. Falkland Islands, 50° 50' S, 57° 15;^' W, 135-144 m., i specimen. 



The largest specimen (St. WS 824) has R 92 mm., r 22 mm., br 21 mm. Koehler's 

 figures (1912, pi. I, figs. 4, 7, 10) show the general habit. The species can be readily 

 distinguished from georgiana by the closer knit skeleton and the extensive series of 

 actinal plates. These extend far along ray and each carries, oriented in a longiseries, 2 

 terete spines, as long as, and a little stouter than, the adambulacrals. The largest specimen 

 has a short second series at base of ray, each plate with i spine. Outside of the actinal 

 spines, the inferomarginals carry an obUque transverse series of 3 or 4 similar terete 



