JAPANESE ASTEROIDEA. 533 



Goniodiscus sehx of Viguier [78, p. 186] is evidently identical witli 

 that of Pereier ['76, p. 46] and tlierefore does not refer to the species 

 before us (vide supra, p. 528). 



Goniodiscus sehce is reported by MöbiüS from Mauritius ['80, p. 50, ßde 

 DE Loriol]. 



Culcita acidispinosa, another synonym of the present species, was 

 originally described by Bell ['83, p. 334] as a distinct species: 



" Resembling G. coriacea, and distinguished from all other species of the 

 genus b}^ the fact that the apices of the upturned ambulacra are below the 

 level of the dorsal or abactinal surface. The body is almost completely dis- 

 coidal in shape, the angles of the rays being very nearly altogether roimd- 

 ed off; the sides of the disk are very deep; in the dry specimens, at any 

 rate, the actinal surface gradually slopes downwards, so that the animal is 

 very much deeper along a line drawn dorso-ventrally through the actinostome 

 than it is at the margin of the disk (62-40 millim.). 



" The adambulacral spines are in two rows ; in the inner there are 

 ordinarily four on each plate, and they are not so well developed as in 

 some allied species : about five plates out from the actinostome they measure 

 about 5 millim. in length. In the outer row there are generally two spines, 

 one of which is very strong and blunt, while the other is much smaller. 

 The spines on the intermediate plates sometimes lie quite close to the outer 

 interambulacral series, and occasionally appear to invade it. 



" The actinal sm-face is not marked out into areolae, and is richly in- 

 vested by a number of short, blunt, stout processes, hardly to be called 

 spines, amidst which a coarse granular covering is to be observed. The 

 jwriferous region 1)egins quite suddenly, at about the second fom-th of the 

 length of the side of the disk (counting from the actinal margin) ; wliile 

 this is the i)oint at which the pores begin at the middle of each side of 

 the disk, the line of demarcation gradually curves upwards, so that along 

 the radial axes the pores begin just above the apex of the ambulacra! 

 gi-oove. The greater part of the sides and the whole of the abactinal 

 surface of the disk are covered with short sharp spines, wliich are scattered 

 over them with considerable jprofusion, though in no definite order; dotted 



