STARFISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE SEAS. 217 



«'. (.Jcmads consisting of numerous tufts oxtentlinj; in a rndial series near the 

 superoniai-ginal plates for over half the lengtli of the ray ; hepatic coeca 

 two, not appearing multiple on account of long subdivisions as in the 

 preceding; tube feet with very small sucking disks; lateral abactinal 

 plates distinctly four-lobed, regularly imbricated MimastreUa^ Fisher. 



Genus RADIASTER Perrier. 



Radiaster Peeeier, 1881, p. 17. Type, 7?. vlvgans Perrier. — Fisher, lOlGrt, 



p. 4. 

 Miniaster Sladen, Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh, vol. 11. 3882, p. 702. Type, 



M. tisardi Sladen ; 18835, p. 579, pi. 34 ; 1889, p. 331. 



RADIASTER NOTABILIS (Fisher). 



Plate 41, figs. 6, 6a ; plate 57, fig. 2 ; plate 58, fig. 1. 



Miniaster notabilis Fisher, 1913rt, p. G24. 

 Radiaster notabilis Fisher 1916a, p. 5. 



Diagnosis. — Differing from B. tisardi (Sladen) in" having much 

 slenderer rays, more numerous paxillar spinelets, more prominent 

 paxilliform marginal plates, a narrower actinal intermediate area 

 on ray. and fewer adambulacral spinelets. R=104 mm., r=35 mm., 

 R=3 r ; breadth of ray at base, 39 mm. Paxillae spaced with upward 

 of 75 delicate, terete, pointed spinelets, either closely appressed in a 

 cylindrical upright group or radiating and forming a subglobose 

 crown; marginal plates small, paxilliform, the inferomarginals the 

 larger, about as high as the length of the base, and standing out 

 horizontally from ambitus ; the crown of spinelets compressed, wider 

 than long: actinal intermediate plates in 10 or 11 very regular 

 chevrons and extending to the end of the ray; halfway along ray 

 about 5 actinal intermediate plates in a transverse series (8 or 9 in 

 tizardi) ; intermediate plates with spaced, cylindrical, upright paxilli- 

 form groups of slender spines; adambulacral armature resembling 

 that of M. tizardi, but with 13 or 14 (instead of 15 to 20) spinelets, 

 2 or 3 of which (about 1.5 plates in length and considerably stouter 

 than the rest) occupj- the furrow margin. 



Descri'ption. — Paxillae spaced; spinelets numerous, very tlelicate, 

 terete, pointed, forming sometimes a cylindrical flat-topped group 

 and sometimes from their radiating position a more or less hemi- 

 spherical group. The abactinal surface verj^ greatly resembles that 

 of a Dipsacaster. The paxillae are arranged at the sides of the area 

 in a sort of quincunx— in series oblique to the radial line, but in 

 series trending both distad and proximad from any given point. The 

 paxillae are a little smaller on the center of disk than toward the 

 margin, where the longest are found, but the difference is not great. 

 One of the larger paxillae has between 50 and 75 very delicate, sharp, 



^ Fisher, lOlGo, p. 5 ; genotype, Miniaster coijnatus Sladen. 



