A. E. Verrill — Revision Genera and Species of Starfishes. 169 



This genus is separated from Tosia on account of the small, 

 irregular, secondary jjlates or ossicles between the primarj'- abactinal 

 plates, and the large, broad bivalve pedicellarise of the type. 



The characters of the marginal plates, actinal plates, and of the 

 adambulacral spinules are like those of Tosia, of the granularis 

 group (section C). 



The second species {planus), although, so far as known, without 

 pedicellarise, is placed in this genus because it agrees with the type 

 in the characters of the skeleton. 



Peltaster hebes Ver. , sp. nov. 



Plate XXVIII. Figure 4. 



Form broadly pentagonal, with very short rays and a rather thick, 

 flat disk and large, slightly convex marginal plates, decidedly higher 

 than long. Radii as 7:8. All the plates are closely and uniformly 

 granulated, above and below, and many actinal plate shave, in the 

 type, central, large, bivalve pedicellariae with broad blades. 



Upper marginal plates about 20 on each side of the body ; lower 

 ones about 24 in the type. Along the sides of the disk the upper 

 and lower ones are pretty closely paired and nearly of the same size 

 and shape, though the vertical sutures are not strictly coincident, 

 except between the middle plates, owing to the slightly wider lower 

 plates. In each series the plates are nearly twice as high as long, 

 and this form holds good except for the last two upper and last four 

 or five lower plates, which decrease in size and change form very 

 rapidly, the last ones being very small. The apical plate is very 

 small, obconic, not prominent. 



The abactinal plates are closely crowded, and so closely granulated 

 that the outlines are concealed, unless denuded. The primary plates 

 are rounded or polygonal, with many rounded angles, and are sur- 

 rounded, in the radial areas, by many smaller secondary plates, 

 having the same form and granulation, but variable in size, and 

 mostly less than half the diameter of the larger plates. All are 

 closely covered with small round granules, the marginal series 

 scarcely difi^erent from the rest. The larger plates may have 40 to 

 50 granules, of which 18 to 24 may form the marginal row. 



The papular pores are very small and numerous, placed singly, and 

 occupy wide radial areas. 



The adambulacral plates bear a closely crowded group of graded 

 spines on the actinal side ; the furrow-series consists of five or six 

 short, thick, blunt, prismatic or compressed spinules, in a nearly 



