_'.;| BULLETIN 76, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



I. KALVI'I ASTEUIA.S CONPBBTA Koehler. 



Kalyptasterios con) i 1923, p. 13, pi. I. figs. 4-7. 



Falkland [slands (Port Louis, 1 to 7 meters). 



Genus KOEHLERASTER Fisher 



Koehleraster Fisher, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 9, vol. 10, Dec. 1922, p. 596. Type, 

 Anasterias octoradiata Koehler. 



Diagnosis. — Differs from Lysasterias in having an open but perfectly normal, 

 irregularly reticulate, abactinal skeleton and well developed marginal skeleton; 

 differs from Anasterias and Sporasterias in possessing a thick, highly pustulated, 

 "cauliflower" skin. AdambulacraJ plates monacanthid, but a few proximally 

 occasionally diplacanthid; a very inconspicuous scries of small spineless actinal plates; 

 abactinal skeleton an irregular but complete reticulum of small, imbricated mostly 

 simple elliptical or oblong, occasionally faintly lobed plates; carinal series very 

 irregular; superomarginals monacanthid, inferomarginals mostly diplacanthid, the 

 spines surrounded by mammillated sheaths which contain (like those of dorsal sur- 

 face) a few fair-sized crossed pedicellariae without enlarged terminal teeth; numerous 

 scattered, narrowly spatulate to compressed, broadly lanceolate, often pedunculate 

 straight pedicellariae; tube feel crowded, large, quadriserial; gonads open ventrally, 

 although attached on level with marginal plates; adoral carina composed of four 

 pairs of contiguous adambulacral plates; numerous (eight or nine) rays. 



KOEHLERASTER OCTORADIATUS (Koehler). 



Anasterias octoradiata Koehler, Science Bull. Mas. Brooklyn Inst. Arts and Sciences, vol. 2, 

 no. 4, 1914, p. 64, pi. II, figs. 1-7. South Georgia. Also 1923, p. 14, pi. 6, fig. 6. 



South Georgia, 10 to 15 meters. 



I have examined the type which is now in the United States National Museum. 

 This is eight rayed, while the second specimen (Koehler, 1923) is nine rayed. 



The species is evidently allied to true Anasterias. It has a complete irregularly 

 nliculate abactinal skeleton consisting of very numerous, small, but fairly robust, 

 oval, elliptical-oblong, and a few irregularly 3-lobed plates (the latter perhaps repre- 

 senting primary dorsolaterals). There is an irregular carinal series, of which the 

 plates are no larger than the others. The abactinal plates are joined to the supero- 

 marginals by transverse bands of plates which are a little more regular than the others, 

 and between consecutive trabeculae are broad (but short) papular areas, which form 

 a zone just above the superomarginaJ plates. These papular areas, or skeletal meshes, 

 are larger than the other abactinal and the intermarginal meshes. 



The marginal plates are fairly robust and of the form usually found in the 

 Asteriinae — namely, four lobed. The descending lobe of the superomarginal is the 

 longest, and strongly overlaps the ascending lobe of the inferomarginal. The supero- 

 marginals are regularly monacanthid, while most of the inferomarginals are dipla- 

 canthid. There is a very inconspicuous series of small spineless actinal plates. 



The gonads are not present in all rays, and are attached to the body wall on a 

 level with the superomarginals; but the duct turns downward, and I believe that I 

 have demonstrated it- external opening on the ventral surface, on a papilla, close to 

 the interradial line. 



