STARFISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE SEAS. 463 



the innermost is usually abruptly much shorter than the other 5, 

 which are subequal or increase slightly in length toward the outer- 

 most. The spines of both kinds of combs are normally webbed be- 

 yond their tips, each spine being prolonged by a fleshy sacculus; but 

 in most cases this is destroyed. 



Mouth plates with 6 or 5 oral spines, united by a web to the tips, 

 and the 2 series united by membrane. Inner oral spine 10 mm. long, 

 while the length of the straight suture between the mouth plates, 

 to outer beaklike projection is 7.5 mm. Suboral spine slenderer 

 than inner oral spine and 8 mm. long. 



Madreporic body large, convex, 10 mm. in diameter by 7 mm. high. 

 There is a stout pedicel arising from the outer side near the edge, 

 while in muUipes the pedicel is at the edge. In some species of 

 Retaster and Pteraster this paxilla arises from the summit (see 

 Fisher, 1911c?, p. 370, footnote). 



Tyjye.—Ciit. No. 37016, U.S.N.M. 



Type-locality.— Stsition 5656, Gulf of Boni, Celebes (lat. 3° 17' 

 40" S.; long. 120° 36' 45" E.), 484 fathoms, gray mud, bottom tem- 

 perature 41.2° F. 



Distribution. — Known only from type-locality. 



Remarks. — D. ven^cosus (Sladen) differs in having 15 paxillar 

 spines and short adambulacral spines — much shorter than in mul- 

 tipes., while in D. peregvinator (Sladen) the central paxillar spines 

 do not protrude beyond the rest, and the supradorsal membrane is 

 not conspicuously spiny. The former species was dredged from the 

 Atlantic entrance to the Strait of Magellan, while the latter was 

 taken off Cumberland Bay, Kerguelen Island. 



This race or small species is a long way geographically from its 

 nearest known relative. Z>. multipes., differing in some particulars 

 from typical Atlantic specimens, has been taken in Suruga Gulf, 

 Japan, 475 fathoms, bottom temperature 39.1° F. (see Fisher, 1911<3?, 

 p. 372). 



Genus HYMENASTER Wyville-Tboitison. 



Hymenaster Wyville-Thomson, Depths of the Sea, 1873, p. 120. Type, 

 H. pelluddus Thomson. 



HYMENASTER RHODOPEPLUS Fisher. 



Plate 129; plate 130, fig. 1; plate 133, fig. 6. 

 Hymenaster rhodopeplus Fisher, 1916b, p. 29. 



Diagnosis. — Closely resembling H. nohilis Sladen but differing in 

 having 7 instead of 6 rows of paxillae to each ray, in having a stouter 

 and longer adambulacral spine (much longer than aperture papilla), 



