REPORT ON THE ASTEROIDEA. 429 
The ambulacral tube-feet are’crowded and form four alternating rows. They have a 
more or less button-like fleshy termination. 
The terminal plate is small, smooth, and rounded anteriorly. 
I have failed to detect the presence of pedicellarie of any kind in this starfish. 
Colour in alcohol, a light brownish yellow, excepting the smooth naked primary plates 
and median radial plates, which are white. The elongate spines of the marginal and 
actinal intermediate plates are white. 
Locality.—Station 204. Off Tablas Island, Philippine group. November 2, 1874. 
Lat. 12° 43’ 0” N., long. 122° 9’ 0” E. Depth 100 fathoms. Green mud. Surface 
temperature 84°°0 Fahr. 
Remarks.—Pholidaster squamatus is nearly related to Pholidaster distinctus, and 
the differences are discussed in the description of that species. These two remarkable 
forms are altogether unlike any other starfish with which I am acquainted. 
2. Pholidaster distinctus, n. sp. (Pl. LX VIL. fig. 7). 
Rays five. R=70 mm.; r=7:°25mm. R>95r._ Breadth of a ray near the base, 
7°25 mm. 
Although this form is very nearly allied to Pholidaster squamatus, it appears to be a 
well-marked species. Its general habit, however, accords so closely with the preceding 
description that it seems to me more satisfactory to give a comparative review of the 
points wherein the two differ than a long description, which would be in a large measure 
a repetition of what has gone before. 
The general form of the rays is the same, but in Pholidaster distinctus the disk is not 
higher than the base of the rays and is not convex. The median radial series of plates 
are distinctly convex, forming a broad slightly elevated band along the ray. The breadth 
of the median radial series is rather greater than in Pholidaster squamatus. The appear- 
ance of the disk is very different in consequence of the under-basals being exposed, and 
nearly as large as the primary radials ; the median radial series of plates thus extending 
uninterruptedly from the dorso-central plate to the extremity. Smooth basal plates, 
margined by scales, are also present. The supero-marginal plates are in like manner 
naked and margined only by a single series of scales on their outer margin. This pro- 
duces a very strongly marked superficial difference between the two forms, as the supero- 
marginal plates in Pholidaster squamatus are entirely masked by scales. The lateral 
spines and the large single spines on the actinal intermediate plates are relatively smaller 
in Pholidaster distinctus than in Pholidaster squamatus. Furthermore, there are not 
more than two longitudinal series of spines borne on the actinal intermediate plates in 
the former, whereas there are three in the latter, and one of these is often small and 
aborted on the outer part of the ray. 
In the armature of the adambulacral plates the spinelets on the ridge of the prominent 
