26 THE ECHINODERMS OF TORRES STRAIT. 
ASTEROIDEA. SEA-STARS. 
The sea-stars of the Torres Strait region are as a rule notably conspicuous, 
sometimes because of their size, but much more often because of their brilliant 
colors. The larger species usually lie exposed on sandy bottoms, but the smaller 
forms occur mostly under rock fragments on the reef-flats, generally near the living 
reef. It is a remarkable fact that of the 41 species included in this report, only 2 
(Linckia levigata and Echinaster luzonicus) can be called abundant even locally, 
and not more than 10 others can be considered common. Indeed, 15 of them are 
known from fewer than 5 specimens, and of the 23 species taken at Mer, 6 are 
represented in the collection by only a single specimen each. It is difficult to account 
for this relative scarcity of sea-stars in a region where 41 species occur, but it 
may be that most of the species find their real home in that inaccessible area on 
the face of the reef where wading and dredging are alike impossible, and that only 
a few wanderers from this region come up into the accessible shallow water of the 
reef-flat. 
An examination of the list of species brings out the noteworthy fact that there 
is not a single representative of the order Forcipulata, the group which makes up 
so large a part of the shallow-water sea-star fauna of the North Pacific. The 
group, however, is not common in the tropics anywhere and is represented by very 
few species in the Australian fauna, hence it is not strange that it does not reach 
Torres Strait. Even the Spinulosa are represented by only 10 species divided among 
6 families; the Asterinide, however, claim 5 of these species, so the other families 
have only one each. On the other hand, the characteristically tropical family 
Ophidiasteride is a notable feature of the Torres Strait fauna, 16 species, or prac- 
tically two-fifths of all the sea-stars of the region, belonging in this group. The 
commonest and most conspicuous sea-star at the Murray Islands is the brilliantly 
blue Linckia levigata. The genus Nardoa is represented by 4 species on the reefs 
at Mer, while 3 species of Ophidiaster also occur there. Because of its prominence, 
the family seems entitled to special attention in this report, and a revision of all 
its known genera and species is therefore included. 
PHANEROZONIA. 
ASTROPECTINIDZE. 
Astropecten granulatus. 
Miiller and Troschel, 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 75.—Déderlein. 1896. Jena. Denkschr., 8, pl. xviii, figs. 30, 30a. 
The locality from which the original types of the present species came is unknown, 
but the Challenger took an Astropecten in the Arafura Sea, in 28 fathoms, which Sladen 
(1889), after comparison with Miiller and Troschel’s types, considered granulatus. Semon 
took a specimen somewhere in Torres Strait, which Déderlein (1896) identified as the same 
species, and Merton and Roux took at the Aru Islands a single individual which Koehler 
* Sladen lists, in his Challenger report (1889), Archaster angulatus from Torres Strait, but I am unable to find any 
authority for such record or for the occurrence of any other member of the family Archasteride. 
