298 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



[Echi)iodi'r)ns. 



Fam. ECHINASTERIDAE. 



Henricia, Gray, is-io. 

 Henricia ornata, Perrier. 



1869. Echinaster {CriheUn) onmfus, Perrier, Ann. Sci. Nat. (ZooL), (5), xii, 

 p. 251. 1898. Cfibi-dJa lukvnsii, Farquhar, Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxx, p. 190. 

 1908. Henricia ormtla. Bell, Nat. Antarct. Exped. Nat. Hist., iv, p. 10. 

 1908. CrihrcUn ornnia, Koehler, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., xlvi, p. 629, pi. xii, 

 figs. 105, 106. 



Of this starfish I have before me fourteen specimens, of which two are lal)elled 

 by the late Professor Parker as from Campbell Island. The majority of the re- 

 mainder were collected by myself on the shore of Masked Island. They are bright 

 orange in colour while alive, but when dried become a dark coffee-brown ; in 

 spirit they are soon bleached, though in the case of some a pale-brown tinge still 

 remains. Amongst them are two individuals exhibiting regeneration of two and 

 three arms respectively, which in the latter case are mere stumjas of different 

 sizes. 



The dimensions, in millimetres, of a few specimens are here given : — 



The gradually tapering arms are blunt at the extremity, and in the case of the 

 largest individual the tip is 2-5 mm. across. 



There can be no doubt, I think, that the orange-coloured species which is so 

 common near low-water mark at Masked Island belongs to the same species as the 

 individual described by Farquhar under the title C. lukinsii ; but, as I have a greater 

 number of specimens at my disposal — some preserved in alcohol, others dried — it is 

 possible to recognise that in one or two points his account needs amendment. Thus, 

 he speaks of there being " one to three papulae in each area " : as a matter of fact, 

 in very young individuals there may be only 1 ; and in larger ones there are 3, or 

 even .5, or occasionally as many as 6 in each group ; so that his statement, though 

 not invariably, is essentially true. Again, although it is correct to say that in some 

 specimens " the spinelets form somewhat irregular double transverse rows " on the 

 lateral surface of the arms, yet it is possible to separate the specimens into two fairly 

 well marked sets, in one of which (B) there is this double row on marginals and adam- 

 bulacrals, while in the other (A) there is but a single row of spinelets on these plates 



