STARFISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE SEAS. 225 



Remarl^s. — This abyssal species has the general form of Ps. yec- 

 tinifer Liidwig and Ps. dhsoiius Fisher, from the east and north 

 Pacific. It differs in having- longer and slenderer rays, the distal 

 portion being especially attenuate; smaller marginal plates; a very 

 restricted papular area ; smaller and distinctly spaced tabulate plates 

 on the paxillar area, the others being low and not tabulate, and 

 shorter furrow spines. In Ps. dissonus the abactinal plates are very 

 compact and the marginal plates are covered with thickened papilli- 

 form spinelets so closely placed that the outlines of the plates 

 are difficult to discern. The postadambulacral fasciolar peclicellariae 

 are valvate or valvate-pectinate, some of them resembling the bi- 

 valved pedicellariae of the Goniasterinae and Hippasterinae. They 

 are of a very peculiar form, not to be confused with the regular 

 spiniform pectinate pedicellariae of oligopovus. In dissonus the 

 proximal adambulacral plates are widely spaced so that the inter- 

 mediate plates sometimes come to lie near or on the furrow ; and in 

 dlsso'nus the furrow spines are considerably longer than in oligo- 

 forus. Over a considerable portion of the ray of oligoporus the 

 abactinal plates are low and without distinct tabulum. The small 

 papular area is a very characteristic feature of this species. 



The attenuate, long rays and small marginals will readily separate 

 oligoforus from tessellatKs^ Tnozaicus., jordani, and myohrachius. 

 Pseudarchaster roseus (Alcock) from the Laccadive Sea, 740 fath- 

 oms, is a long- rayed form, H equaling 4 r. Koehler (1909, p. 50) 

 writes that in the type there are no inferomarginal spines — merely 

 granules — and Alcock describes the adambulacral plates as having 

 actinally 3 unequal longitudinal series of close prismatic granules. 

 Presumably there are no enlarged subambulacral spines. This species 

 was described as a Mediaster. Koehler states that it is a Pseudarch- 

 aster. From the description it would appear to bear considerable 

 resemblance to the new Aphroditasfer herein described. It is cer- 

 tainly very different from Ps. oligoporus.^ which has armed infero- 

 marginals and prominent subambulacral spines. 



Genus APHRODITASTER Sladen. 



Aph7'0(litaster Sladen, 1889, p. 116. Type, A. g)'aciUs Sladen. 



APHRODITASTER MICROCERAMUS Fisher. 



Plate 59, fig. 2 ; plate 60, fig. 1 ; plate 70, fig. 5 ; plate 91, fig. 1. 



Aphroditaster microccranms Fisher, 1913a, p. 626. 



Diagnosis. — R=46 mm., r=13.5 mm., R=3.4 r; breadth of ray at 

 midinterbrachium, 15 mm. Disk fairly large, with open, rounded 

 interbrachia ; rays slender and pointed; all plates covered with a 

 close tessellation of flat-topped or slightly convex polygonal gran- 



