54 " ENDEAVOUR " SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



Although not taken by the " Endeavour," this specimen 

 was included in the collection, that a description and figures 

 might be published. I have also had for comparison, and 

 have used in drawing up the above description, two specimens 

 also from Lord Howe Island, in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology collection, received from the Austrahan Museum 

 several years ago. As these bore the manuscript name 

 O. confertus, it has seemed well to retain it. The species is 

 near 0. germani, but has only a single madreporite and the 

 arms are much longer. In my report on the " Thetis " 

 Echinodermatai I, with some hesitation, referred an 

 Ophidiaster from Lord Howe Island to Perrier's species, but 

 in view of these additional specimens, I am now inchned to 

 think these is little doubt that 0. germani is quite distinct. 

 The character, to the presence of which my hesitation was due, 

 is not, however, a constant one, no two of the specimens being 

 alike in the arrangement of the subambulacral spines, although 

 they are, in all cases, numerous and regularly arranged near 

 the mouth. 



Loc. — Lord Howe Island, South Pacific Ocean. 



Genus Pseudophidiaster,^ gen. nov. 



Linckiidse with three conspicuous series of abactinal plates 

 and eight series of papular areas, at base of arms, the actinal 

 series tending to disappear distally, near the tip of the pointed 

 arm. Body-wall thick and leathery with little or no rigidity. 

 Adambulacral armature in a single series. Actinolateral 

 plates in several series at base of arms ; no papular areas 

 between them. Pedicellarise present. Madreporite very 

 large. Ampullae single, large, with numerous calcareous 

 plates in their walls. No superambulacral plates. 



Type-species. — Pseudophidiaster rhysus, sp. nov. 



This remarkable genus does not differ structurally from 

 Ophidiaster in any very fundamental points, but in general 

 appearance the difference is very great. Owing to the lack 

 of rigid abactinal skeleton, dry specimens are very much 

 wrinkled and the longitudinal series of plates are made 

 unnaturally conspicuous ; in alcohoHc specimens, longitudinal 

 furrows are not conspicuous, but numerous transverse grooves 



1. H. L. Clark— Mem. Austr. Mus., iv., 11, 1909, p. 529. 



2. \lrevBn'i=ia\se-\-ophidiaster ; in reference to its resemblance to that 

 genus not being apparent. 



