STARFISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE SEAS. 83 



8 slender, blunt membrane-invested spinelets, as long as or slightly 

 longer than the pedicel, which springs from a broadly elliptical 

 base — one conspicuously larger than the caliber of the pedicel. 

 Paxillae fairly uniform in size except on low eminence in center of 

 disk, and far along ray, where they are smaller and lower, those on 

 the outer third of ray having 5 to 2 spinelets. Papulae absent 

 from center of disk and median area of ray. They extend along 

 either side of the ray in a narrow band as far as the middle. The 

 paxillar area is narrow, beyond the middle occupying but a little 

 over the median third of the entire width of ray. Pedicellariae, 

 similar to those of eremicus^ but smaller, are present among the paxil- 

 lae, but are very few and inconspicuous. 



Superomarginal plates, about 55 to each side of the ray, similar 

 to those of A. eremicus in form and position, but the central spine- 

 lets are not sharp and squamiform as in eremicus; rather, they are 

 blunt and clavate, or cylindrical. 



The first 5 to 10 plates bear, at the upper end of the plate, slightly 

 spaced from the inner edge, a small upright conical, sharp, tubercular 

 spine. This rapidly decreases in size and merges into the spinelets, 

 and may be lacking on the first superomarginal. 



Terminal plate similar to that of A. eremicus^ with 2 to 4 slender 

 spines on either side of the tip. 



Inferomarginal folates similar to those of A. eremicus^ forming 

 the margin of ray and covered with coarse, spaced, sharp pulpy 

 spinelets. Lateral spines, 3 proximally and 2 distally, the upper, the 

 longer and stouter, being sharp, flattened and narrowly lanceolate. 

 The others are narrower and shorter, the lowest (when there are 3) 

 being the smallest. In some specimens only the first few plates have 

 3 lateral spines, the rest having 2; and one large specimen (station 

 5363) has only 2 throughout. The small spine near the inner end of 

 the plates of A. eremicus is lacking except rarely on the first 2 or 3 

 plates. Six or 8 plates, scattered throughout each side of the ray of 

 type, bear a large spiniform pedicellaria with 4 to 6 jaws near the 

 inner end. This is either absent or of very rare occurrence in the 

 other specimens. 



Adambulacral plates with 3 furrow spines (except on first 5 to 

 7 plates where there are 4), the middle spine conspicuously the larger, 

 blunt, flattened, and saberlike, the laterals slenderer, subterete, and 

 pointed. The actinal surface of the plate, which is not extensive, 

 bears 2 to 4 shorter, sharp spinelets in 1 or 2 series; none of them are 

 especially enlarged, so that they are subequal, or one on outer part of 

 plate may be much smaller. 



Owing to the pulpy investment the caliber of the subambulacrals 

 is variable — sometimes slender, sometimes stout. No subambulacral 

 pedicellariae. 



