SEA LILIES, STARFISHES, ETC. — CLARK. 113 



Family TEMNOPLEURrD.E. 

 GJenus Salmacis, L. Agassiz. 



Salmacis oligopora, 1 sy. nov. 

 (Plate xlii., fig. 1-2 ; Plate xliii., fig. 2.) 



Test 60-81 mm. h.d. ; 29-39 mm. v.d. ; height therefore 

 just less than haK the horizontal diameter. Veiy similar to 

 *S'. dussumieri and *S'. erythracis, but differing in at least three 

 particulars ; relative number of ambulacral and interambu- 

 lacral plates in each column, form of base of valves of globi- 

 ferous jDedicellarise, and colouration. The number of coronal 

 plates in the specimens at hand runs from 28 to 34, while the 

 number of ambulacral plates in a column is from 43 to 55 ; 

 thus the number of ambulacral plates is only .52-. 62 more 

 than the number of coronal plates ; in S. dussumieri and S. 

 erythracis it is .70-. 87 more. The base of the valves of the 

 globiferous pedicellarise is rather higher than wide and the 

 upper lateral corners are elongated to a much greater degree 

 than in any other species of Salmacis, and flare outwards 

 slightly. Finally the colouration is utterly unlike that of 

 S. dussumieri and quite difl'erent from that of S. erythracis. 

 The test is pale brownish ; the miliary spines and pedicellarise 

 are white, the secondary spines are white or pale greenish 

 or tipped with greenish, and the primaries are greenish-white 

 with 1-3 broad, indefinite bands of olive-green ; the actinal 

 primaries may be white without any green or they may be 

 broadly tipped with olive-green ; sometimes there is also a 

 band of oHve green near middle of spine. There is no hint 

 of red or violet anywhere. 



There are too few specimens of S. dussumieri and S. 

 erythracis at hand to enable me to determine satisfactorily 

 the relationship of the three species to each other. They 

 agree in the peculiar characters of the ambulacra and abactinal 

 system and so form a well marked section of the genus, but 

 it is possible that the characters by which I have separated 

 the three forms from each other are of less significance than 

 I suppose. 



One of the specimens of S. oligopora from off Sandon 

 Bluffs, New South Wales, has a remarkably deformed abac- 

 tinal area ; the anal and genital plates are sunk much below 

 the abactinal part of the ambulacra, and the latter are bent 

 abruptly downwards and inwards to them ; thus the vertical 

 diameter of the test at the distal portion of jjenital I is 39 mm., 



1. oX4'yov=few-}-7ro'/)os-=a way through, a pore; in reference to the 

 relatively small number of ambulacral pores. 



