360 BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



tuberculosus 9 or 10, but in helonotus there are about 18, the distal 9 

 underljnng the hirge superomarginal. It would seem that the mnnber 

 of inferomarginals is a fairly conservative character and that the 

 greatly increased number in helonotus affords a distinguishing fea- 

 ture of great importance. The ray grows not so much by the addition 

 of new marginals as by the interpolation of additional intermar- 

 ginals between the already existing inferomarginals. In this species 

 the furrow spines reach the smallest number for the genus, the 2 sub- 

 ambulacral spines are unusually long, and the inner, not the outer, 

 is the slenderer. 



A. helonotus differs from elegans and tuherculosus in respect to 

 the form of the abactinal tubercles, the more numerous inferomar- 

 ginals, larger terminal superomaginals, indistinguishable proximal 

 superomarginals, spatulate and spiniform inner actinal intermediate 

 tubercles, fewer furrow spines, longer subambulacral spines (the 

 inner being the slenderer) , and the short angle-spines of the mouth 

 plates. The inferomarginal tubercles of A. helonotus are of a com- 

 pressed flaring form, somewhat fan-shaped, and entirely different 

 from the conical tubercles of tuberculosus or elegans. 



Genus CULCITA Agassiz. 



Culcita Agassiz, Mem. soc. sci. nat. Neucliatel, vol. 1, p. 192. Type, 

 Asterias discoidea Lamarck=Asfenas schmideUana Retz. 



CULCITA NOVAE-GUINEAE Muller and Troschel. 



Culcita novae-ouincae Muller and Troschel, 1842, p. 3S. 



Notes on Philippine specimens. — Of the 4 specimens from station 

 5136, 1 shows considerable leaning toward variety plana. These 

 specimens have not quite such prominent spines on the spaces be- 

 tween the papular areas as the specimen figured by Doderlein (1896, 

 pi. 19, figs. 3, 3a), and the ventral side more nearly agrees with his 

 figure la (same plate) representing variety plana. But the spaces 

 between the papular areas are very narrow and the short pointed 

 spines are more numerous than in the specimens of plana listed be- 

 low, and more numerous than in Doderlein's figures of plana. Fur- 

 row spines 6 or 7. The largest specimen has R, 97 mm. 



Goto has recently published notes and figures of this species and a 

 review of the literature, as well as a very useful key to the species 

 and varieties of the genus. (Goto, 1914, pp. 515-604, pi. 17, figs. 

 252-262.) 



Distribution. — Doderlein gives the distribution of the typical form, 

 Amboina to Samoa. Goto (1914, p. 507) records it from the Eyulq^u 

 Archipelago, and I have examined a specimen from Kagoshima, 



