VeiTill, Notes on Radiata. 249 



Coscinasterias muricata Verriii, sp. nov. 



Eays nine to eleven, slender, tapering, rounded above, flat below 

 owing to the width of the ambulacra, narrowed at the base, five to 

 seven times as long as the radius of the disk, which is small. Ambu- 

 lacral furrows .shallow and broad, with very numerous small suckers, 

 crowded in four rows. Interambulacral plates thin, somewhat imbri- 

 cated, connected with the lateral plates by a row of small, stout 

 ossicles which alternate with small rounded pores. Each interam- 

 bulacral plate usually bears a long, slender, tapering spine; these 

 are arranged in a single close row. External to these is a row of 

 distant, longer a,nd stouter cylindrical spines, arising singly from 

 the connecting ossicles between the interambulacral and ventral 

 plates. The latter are strong and imbricated, each usually bearing 

 two longer and stouter blunt spines, which form a crowded double 

 row, along the sides of the arm. Ossicles of the upper surface 

 very stout, bearing strong, acute spines, which are arranged in 

 about five open rows, the median and two external alone reaching 

 the base of the i-ay; those of the median row are somewhat larger, 

 and all are surrounded by close wreaths of minute pedicellariae. On 

 the disk they are smaller and loosely scattered, often obtuse. The 

 major pedicellariae are numerous, scattered over the whole dorsal sur- 

 face and between the ventral spines, and also form a row within the 

 edge of the ambulacral furrow. They vary considerably in size and 

 form upon different parts. Most of those of the dorsal surface are 

 stout, oval, compressed, pointed, nearly twice as long as wide, about 

 •05 of an inch long, while with them are others of similar form not 

 half as large. Those in the ambulacral furrows are even longer, but 

 more acutely pointed. The madreporic plates are variable in number 

 and size as well as position. One appears to be always in its normal 

 position and near the edge of the disk, while the accessory ones are 

 introduced at various points around the disk, but at about the same 

 distance from the margin. Sometimes, when there are but two and 

 the rays are in even numbers, they are directly opposite and in the 

 same transverse plane. A specimen with eleven rays has two contig- 

 uous ones and another separated by four rays, each being composed 

 of several pieces united. One specimen has but one large, convex 

 madreporic plate. 



The largest specimen is 7*5 inches in diameter across the rays, with 

 a disk 1-25 inches in diameter; rays '5 broad; interambulacral spines, 

 •15 long. 



Aukland, New Zealand, — H. Edwards. 



