328 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Remarks. — The specimens recorded from stations 5432 and 5483 

 may be a variety of S. equestris. I have compared them with a fairly 

 large specimen from Usuki, Japan, which may naturally be regarded 

 as typical, as it agrees in the main with Miiller and Troschel's figure 

 (1842, pi. 4, fig. 3). The differences have already been mentioned. 

 Just how constant the width of the marginal plates and the size of 

 the granules are in equestris I am unable to state. But in all the 

 Philippine and Borneo specimens the narrower superomarginals, 

 especially interradially, and the smaller spaced granules are constant. 

 The relationship between incei and equesfris is by no means clear, and 

 some characters other than the dorsal tubercles must be used to dis- 

 criminate specimens from the territory on the edges of their respec- 

 tive ranges, if not elsewhere. 



Genus ANTHENOIDES Perrier. 



AntJienoides Pebkier, 1881, p. 23. Type, A. peircci, Perrier ; also 1884, p. 246. 

 Leptogonaster Sladen, 1889, p. 326.— Fishee, 1911d, pp. 169. 173. 

 Anthcniaster Veekill, 1899, p. 173.— Fishee, 1906, p. 1067; 1911d, pp. 

 169, 173. 



A comparison of Anthenoides peircei with Leptogonaster cristatus 

 reveals no differential characters of generic importance. Anthe- 

 noides sanssa, the type of Antheniaster, is very closeh' related to 

 Leptogonaster cristatus. It is certainly not in a separate genus. All 

 three species have the body overlaid by a skin of variable thickness, 

 which obscures either rudimentary or fairly well developed granules, 

 and the pedicellariae vary from a low slitlike bivalved type to 

 slender forcipiform. In A. cristatus the pedicellariae are extremely 

 variable. All three species have numerous secondary abactinal 

 plates, which increase in number with age. These plates are there- 

 fore not characteristic of Antheniaster alone, as Verrill believed. 

 There is even greater similarity in their particular form between 

 those of A. peircei and A. cristatus. A. peircei., A. cristatus., and 

 A. sarissa have similar inferomarginal spinules, while in A. epixan- 

 thus, A. granulosus, A. lithosorus, and A. rugulosus special spinules 

 are always absent, the plates being granulous. Finally, all except 

 A. sarissa, which has not been examined, have the gonads, not single, 

 but fairly numerous in a series, on each side of and parallel to the 

 membranous interbrachial septa. 



KEY TO THE KNOWN SPECIES OF ANTHENOIDES. 



a*. Actinal intermediate areas with large slit-like bivalved pedicellariae nearly 

 flush with the general surface ; abactinal membrane thick and tough. 

 peircei Perrier. 



a*. Pedicellariae varj'iug from forcipiform to bivalved, but when bivalved al- 

 ways small and not sunken flush with surface. 



