168 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Mouth plates and armature practically the same as in L. astheno- 

 soma, but the median suture broader. (Fisher, 1911c?, pi. 21, fig. 1.) 



Color in alcohol, bleached yellowish brown. 



Type.— C'^t. No. 32623, U.S.N.M. 



Type-locality. — Station 5301, China Sea, vicinity of Hongkong 

 (lat. 20° 37' N.; long. 115° 43' E.), 208 fathoms, gray mud. sand, 

 bottom temperature 50.5° F. 



Disf7'ihution. — Known onl}^ from the type-locality. 



Remarks. — This species, as stated in the diagnosis, resembles most 

 nearly L. asthenosoma, from off the coast of California, to which it 

 is ver}' closely related. It is also related to L. sarsi, L. elegans, and L. 

 africana. It differs from L. sarsi in having longer paxillar, marginal, 

 and actinal spines, broader and deeper marginal furrows; it differs 

 from elegans in practically the same respects, and in lacking the nu- 

 merous abactinal pedicellariae of elegans. L. elegans and L. sarsi are 

 very close, probably but races of the same species. It differs from L. 

 africana, which represents elegans on the east side of the Atlantic, 

 in having broader inferomarginal fascioles, longer inferomarginal 

 spinelets, more tapered actinal pedicellariae, and agrees with it as 

 well as with asthenosoma in having longer rays than sarsi. 



As L. asthenosoma is not known north of central California, its 

 range is widely separated from that of orientalis. L. africana, th^ 

 nearest form to the westward, is found in the Atlantic off northern 

 Africa. It would appear, therefore, that L, orientalis is isolated 

 from its two nearest relatives. L. sarsi, L. elegans, L. africana, L. 

 asthenosoma, and L. orientalis all bear a rather close resemblance, 

 and the differences which separate the species are less trenchant per- 

 haps than are usually relied upon to separate species of starfishes. 

 The range of variation, so far as known, is slighter than in most 

 species of starfishes, so that the characters, even if relatively slight, 

 are apparently constant and trustworthy. The range of variation is 

 unknown in L. orientalis, since there is only one specimen known. 



LUIDIA MACULATA Miiller and Troschel. 



Luidia maculata Mulleb and Tuoschel, 1842, p. 77 (Japan). For descrip- 

 tion and bibliography see: Perrier, 1875, p. 338; Koeliler, 1895. p. 3S7 ; 

 1910?), p. 267. 



Notes on Philippine specimens. — The two nearly equal-sized speci- 

 mens from station 5346, Palawan, 8 fathoms, present some points of 

 difference when compared with a presumably typical, large example 

 from Misaki, Japan. The Palawan specimens have 11=135 to 140 

 mm., although some of the 8 rays arc shorter than this, having 

 been broken and subsequently^ regenerated. In the Japanese speci- 

 men, R=175 mm. ; rays 8. The paxillae of the Palawan specimens are 

 distinctly smaller, and not rectangular as are those of the Japanese 



