STARFISHES OP THE PHILIPPINE SEAS. 487 



Madreporic body small, convex, very inconspicuous. There are 

 short superambulacral plates passing from the ambulacrals to the 

 inferomarginals. The first superambulacral is much enlarged and 

 acts as a stay or buttress connecting the upper swollen end of the 

 first 2 ambulacral ossicles with the body wall at the interradial angle. 

 Between this buttress and that of the adjacent ray is a very small 

 membranous interbrachial septum. At the base of the ray the ambu- 

 lacral ridge bends sharply upward, a fact which renders the buttress 

 rather conspicuous. 



Type.— C2it. No. 37011, U.S.N.M. 



Type-locality. — Station 5648, Buton Strait, Celebes, 559 fathoms, 

 green mud, bottom temperature 39.2° F. ; 1 specimen. 



Distribution. — Known only from type-locality. 



Family ASTERIIDAE Gray (emended). 



Genus DISTOLASTERIAS Perrier. 



Distolasterias Perkier, 1896, p. 34. Type, Asterias (Stolasterias) stichantJia 

 Sladen. 



DISTOLASTERIAS EUPLECTA Fisher. 



Coscinasterias (Distolasterias) euplecta Fisher, 1906, p. 1105, pi. 41, figs. 

 4, 4a--c; pi. 42, figs. 1-4. 



The specimen, which measures R, 155 mm., and r, 9 mm., is larger 

 than the type, with relatively smaller disk. The adambulacral sj)ines 

 are a trifle more attenuate and tapered (with compressed tip) at the 

 base of the ray than are those of the type. Distallj'^ the spines are 

 less compressed than those of the type, most of them being practically 

 terete. One or 2 actinal intermediate plates on each raj^ carry, ab- 

 normally, a small spine, where in hypacantha there is regularly a 

 spine. 



Type.—Q^i. No. 21188, U.S.N.M. 



Type-locality. — Station 3885, Pailolo Channel, Hawaiian Islands, 

 136 to 148 fathoms, sand and j)ebbles, bottom temperature 64.8° F. 



Specimen examined. — One from station 5371, northwest of Marin- 

 duque Island (lat. 13° 49' 40" N. ; long. 121° 40' 15" E.), 83 fathoms. 



Distribution. — Hawaiian Islands and Philippine Islands. The 

 vertical range in the Hawaiian Islands is 63 to 182 fathoms. 



DISTOLASTERIAS HYPACANTHA Fisher. 



Plate 141, figs. 2, 3 ; plate 151, figs. 5, 5ff. 

 Distolasterias hypacantha Fisher, IQllb, p. 92. 



Diagnosis. — Rays 5. R=129 mm., r=8 nun., R=16. r; breadth 

 of ray at widest part near base, 14 or 15 mm. Resembling 

 D. mazophora (Alcock) and D. euplecta Fisher, from both of which 

 it differs in having, on the proximal half of the ray, a series of small 



