ASTEROIDEA 133 



The plates between the adambulacraLs and lower marginals 

 usually with 1-3 long, upwardly directed, appressed spines, forming 

 slightly oblique lines. The prominent adambulacrals with four 

 moderately long spines forming a transverse series, the innermost 

 one with ca. 2-5 pedicellariae attached to the point ; the non- 

 prominent adambulacrals have no spines within the furrow. 

 Reaches a very considerable size, up to ca. 160 mm. R. The 

 relative length of arms is subject to considerable variations : 

 R = ca. 6-12 r ; it appears that older individuals have propor- 

 tionally the longer and more slender arms. Colour in life varying 

 from pink or yellowish to white. The living specimens are rather 

 slimy. 



Biology and development unknown. 



In British seas this species has been found in the Faroe 

 Channel and off S.W. Ireland, where it appears to be very 

 common in depths of ca. 800-1200 m. It is distributed all over 

 the North Atlantic, from Iceland to S. of the Canaries, and on 

 the American side from off Newfoundland to Brazil. The 

 bathymetrical distribution is ca. 730-2470 m. 



It would seem not improbable that among the numerous 

 specimens taken by the " Helga " off S.W. Ireland there are 

 really two different species, viz. besides the typical Z. fulgens 

 another form with more slender arms and with more numerous 

 carinal plates (a specimen of the typical form of R=93 mm. 

 having 55, one of 94 mm. R of the slender form having 93 carinals). 

 The author having had no opportunity of examining this slender 

 form, can only call attention to the said differences, as recorded 

 by Farran {Ojp. cit. p. 21) ; perhaps these slender armed specimens 

 were really Z. longicauda} 



III. Family Stichasterid^ 2 



Rays mostly 5, short or of medium length, tapering, not 

 restricted at the base and not sharply defined against the disk. 

 Dorsal skeleton of arms fairly large, mostly imbricated plates 

 arranged in more or less regular longitudinal rows, leaving only 

 small spaces between them for the papulae. They are covered 



^ It is figured by Farran {Op. cit., PI. I. 3) under the name Zoroaster 

 fulgens, var. Ackleyi. 



^ This family is not acknowledged by W. K. Fisher in his latest works, 

 the genus Neomorphaster being made the type of a subfamily Neomor- 

 phasterinae, and the genera Stichastrella and Gastraster being referred to 

 the subfamily Asteriinae, both of the family Asteriidse. Also the Pedicel- 

 lasteridse are regarded as a subfamily only of the Asteriidse. 



