JAPANESE ASTEROroEA. 417 



" Es scheint demnach eine Reihe nah verwandter Arten vom (südlichen) 

 Japan bis in den indischen Archipel sich zu erstrecken." 



In his work of 1866 Gray simply reproduces the descriptions of his 

 earlier papere, but gives figm-es of this species, and among others makes the 

 following remark ['66, p. 7] : " b. Stellaster gracilis, Möbius, Abhandl. IV. 

 1860, ii, t. 11. f. 3, 4, wliich is very nearly alHed, if not the same in a 

 rather different state. Tliis state has also been described by Dujardin under 

 the name of Asfrogouium Souleyetii. 



As to Astrogonium souleyetii DuJ. & Hijpé, it is a synonym of Iconaster 

 Imgimamis (Möbius) [Sladen, '89, id. 262]. 



Von Martens again refers to this species as foUows ['67, p. 112] : 



" Ein käuflich erworbenes Exemplar, angebHch aus der chinesischen See, 

 zeigt fünf Gruppen von kleinen Höckern auf dem Scheibeninicken, was eine 

 weitere Variation derselben darstellt, und die oben tuherculosus genannte Art 

 wieder enger an equestris ansclJiesst." 



LÜTKEN combines the tlu'ee genera, Stellaster, Ästrogmiium and Gonio- 

 discus under the Goniaster of Agassiz and mentions or describes six species, 

 G. equestris Retz., G. incei Gray, G. tuherculosus v. Mart., G. helcheri Gray, 

 G. mülleri v. Mart., and G. Diihenii Gray. Of these the last named species 

 lias since been refen-ed to the genus Pentagonaster {Tosia). Goniaster equestris 

 is described as follows ['71, p. 245] : 

 " Goniaster {Stellaster) equestris (Retz.). 



"Et Exemplar fra Formosa-Kanalen 

 (R = 40 mm., r=16 mm.) stemmer 

 meget godt med Beskrivelsen af S. 

 equestris i 'System d. Ästenden,' 

 som er udkastet efter Retzius's Ori- 

 ginal-Exemplar i Limd. Det har 

 ligesom dette 13 Randplader paa hver 

 Side af hver Arm og en Elreds af 

 Knuder (her fire, den femte mangier) 

 paa Ryggen i samme Afstand fra 

 Midtpunktet som Madreporpladen. 

 Disse Knuder omtales ogsaa af v. 

 Martens hos lians i det sydlige 



A specimen from Formosa Strait 

 (R = 40 mm., r=16 mm.) agrees very 

 well with the description of S. equestris 

 in the ' System der Asteriden,' which 

 is based on Retzius' original speci- 

 men in Lund. It has like it 13 

 marginal plates on each side of each 

 arm and a circle of nodes (in this 

 case fom', the fifth is wanting) on the 

 back at the same distance from the 

 centre as the madreporic plate. These 

 nodes are also mentioned by v. Mar- 

 tens in his specimens obtained in 



