JAPAÎÎESE ASTEEOIDEA. 



149 



tra Exemplarer fra Hongkong i Cliina 

 er gjennemgaaende kun 2-clen og 3- 

 die, et Par Steder kun anden og et 

 enkelt Sted ikke engang denne pig- 

 1ÖS ; men intetsteds udvides Piglös- 

 lieden til den fjerde Randplade. Af 

 to andre foraliggende Exemplarer 

 holder det ene sig Regeln ganske 

 efterrettôlig, medens det andet kun 

 viser den nbatydelige Afvigelse der- 

 fra, at det i den ene Armvinkel paa 

 den ene Side liar to piglöse Rand- 

 plader istendefor 3. — ^Hvorvidt denne 

 Art er vel adskilt fra A. vappct M. 

 Tr. (Nj'liolland) og A. polyacanthus 

 M. Tr. (Piüde Hav), tm-de derfor 

 endnu vœrô , tvivlsomt ; mellem de 

 Exemplarer af alle tre Former, som 

 have staaet til min Raadighed, har 

 jeg ikke kunnet finde rigtig gode 

 Artsmœrker, men jeg indrömmer, at 

 der udfordres större Suiter for at 

 kunne udtale sig med Bestemthed 

 mod deres Forskjellighed. Af den 

 store geografiske Af stand vil der ne^^pe 

 kunne hentes nogen Understöttelse 

 for denne sidste, da der er mange 

 andre Arter, der optrsede m3d ligesaa 

 stör Udbredning." 



plates. In three examples from 

 Hongkong in China, only the second 

 and third are destitute of spines 

 throughout, and in a couple of places 

 only the second and in a single 

 place none was without a spine ; but 

 nowhere does the spineless condition 

 extend to the fourth marginal plate. 

 Of two other examples lying before 

 me, one faithfully keeps to the rule, 

 while the other presents only an in- 

 considerable deviation from it, inas- 

 much as there are on one side of 

 one of the arm angles two spineless 

 marginal plates instead of 3. — How 

 far this species is well separate 

 from A. vappa M. Tr. (New Holland) 

 and A. polyacanthus (Red Sea), it 

 may therefore still be doubtful ; 

 among the examples of all the tlu'ee 

 forms, which have stood at my 

 disposal I have not been able to find 

 really good specific characters, but I 

 concede that larger series are neces- 

 sary in order to express oneseK 

 definitely against their distinctness. 

 From the gTeat geographical separa- 

 tion one would hardly derive any 

 support for this last (their specific dis- 

 tinctness), since there are many 

 another species which have as wide 

 a distribution. 



Von Maetens makes the following simple remarks ['65, p. 352] : 



" Astropeden armatus MÜLL, et TßOSCHEL 1. c. S. 71., non Gray. Herklots 



fn. jap. tab. inédit. X. fig. 1. 



" Ein starker aufrechtstehender Stachel auf jeder Randplatte." 



It is a rather strange coincidence that both Müller and Troschel and 



VON - Martens had specimens with spines on all the superomarginals, 



