NO. 2180. A NEW SEA STAR FROM KAMCHATKA— FISHER. 371 



Type-locality. — Albatross station 3644, southeast coast of Kam- 

 chatka, lat. 51° 16' N. ; long. 157° 48' W., 96 fathoms, black sand, bot- 

 tom temperature 33.1° Fahrenheit; 2 specimens. 



Location of the gonads in Lepty chaster. — In four species of the genus 

 Leptychaster, which I have been able to examine, the testes differ in 

 distribution from the ovaries. In L. arcticus, L. pacijicus, L. propin- 

 quus, and L. anomalus (the last three being North Pacific species) 

 the ovaries are in a single tuft close to the interradial septum — a pair, 

 thus, in each interbrachiima. In some specimens the branches may 

 extend far along the ray, but they are attached in only one place, as 

 stated above. In the male the gonads form a series of independent 

 tufts of tubules, parallel with the margin, and distributed for a third 

 to nearly a half the length of ray, according to the size of the speci- 

 men. The distribution of the testes in the above species of Lepty- 

 chaster is therefore similar to the distribution of both ovaries and 

 testes in Trophodiscus, Dipsacaster, Ctenopleura, Tethy aster, Thrissa- 

 canthias, and other genera. This condition of the gonads is appar- 

 ently characteristic of the genus Leptychaster, although of course, it 

 will doubtless be found to be true of other genera. The reason I 

 did not discover this when working up my North Pacific Asteroidea, 

 Part I, was the fact that I dissected then only a single example of 

 each species, which happened in all cases to be a female. Recently, 

 at the United States National Museum, I found ''serial gonads" m a 

 specimen of L. arcticus, from station 21, Cashes Ledge. A specimen 

 from station 4779 (North Pacific) has serial gonads and is a male, 

 while a female from station 5047 has strictly interradial, nonserial, 

 gonads. 



This arrangement of the gonads holds true in all specimens exam- 

 ined, namely: 



Leptychaster propinquus, 2 males and 3 females ; station 4788. 



L. anomalus, 1 male, station 4233 ; 1 female, station 4280. 



L. pacijicus, 1 male, station 3223; 2 females, station 2862. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 



All figures are of Trophodiscus almus. 



Plate 28. 



Abactinal surface of the holotype, showing the young among the paxillae. 



Plate 29. 

 Actinal surface of the paratype. 



Plate 30. 



Base of ray and portion of disk, enlarged to show the young. The arrows point to 

 very small young. 



