58 ‘* ENDEAVOUR” SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 
imbricating and with a proximal notch or concavity for the 
subtending papula ; there are no small supplementary plates ; 
across the base of the ray one may count 10-12 series of plates 
but only 8 or 6 distally above the superomarginals ; at base 
of ray there are 5-7 series of papule but only three (or two) 
extend beyond the middle of ray. Except for a few minute 
spinelets around the anus and around the madreporite, all 
the abactinal plates, but 10 or so in each interradial angle, 
are perfectly bare and smooth ; the interradial plates referred 
to each carry 6-10 exceedingly slender spines, .75 mm. long. 
Superomarginal plates small and perfectly bare. Infero- 
marginals about 24 on each side of ray, very conspicuous, 
each one bearing a tuft of 12-15 (or more) exceedingly slender 
spines 1-1.5 mm. long. Actinolateral plates in two complete 
series, while a third runs as far as the twentieth (from inter- 
radius) inferomarginal ; there are 5 or 6 plates in a fourth 
series, and a few additional plates in the interbrachial arc ; 
except the three most adoral plates of the first series, which 
are perfectly bare, each of these plates carries a single, sharp, 
relatively stout spine nearly a millimeter long; in each 
interradial area except one, back of the oral plates, is a small 
bit of naked, uncalcified skin. Adambulacrals about 26, 
all but the two most adoral, corresponding to an infero- 
marginal with the intervening actinolaterals; armature 
consists of a furrow series of 5 (4-6) spines, the middle one 
longest, adoral and aboral ones shortest, and a single promi- 
nent subambulacral spine on the surface of the plate. Oral 
plates rather large, with only 5 marginal spines, the terminal 
much the largest, and a single big spine on the surface. 
Madreporite small, triangular, nearer centre of disk than 
margin. Colour (dry), pale yellow-brown. 
This very interesting Asterina, while not collected by the 
‘* Endeavour,” is included in the collection sent me, and 
certainly deserves description. It belongs in the section of the 
genus to which Verrill has recently given the name Patiriella, 
the type of which is 4. regularis from New Zealand. But there 
is little superficial resemblance between A. leptalacantha and 
A. regularis and if Asterina is to be broken up, one would 
hardly expect them to fall into the same section. The new 
Australian species cannot be mistaken for any hitherto 
described, the relatively long arms, the bare abactinal plates, 
the remarkable inferomarginals and the spinulation of the 
actinal surface forming a very distinctive group of characters. 
Loc.—Masthead Island, Queensland, collected by Mr. A. R. 
McCulloch, December, 1913. 
