ANNOTATED LIST. PAC 
(1910) is sure is identical with Semon’s. Fisher (1919) records a specimen from Ragay 
Gulf, Luzon, 128 fathoms. There are specimens in the Museum of Comparative Zodélogy 
collection from the coast of Natal, taken by the Pieter Faure, which agree with Déderlein’s 
figures very exactly, and as they answer well to Sladen’s description, save for a few details, 
they should apparently be called granulatus. The distribution of the species is thus quite 
puzzling, but if it is an Indian Ocean species it has not yet found its way through Torres 
Strait. It is not improbable that it will be found on the western coast of Australia, perhaps 
even on the southern coast, in which case it would be suggestive of a former connection 
between Australia and South Africa. We saw no Astropectens at Mer, nor indeed any- 
where in Torres Strait. 
Astropecten zebra. 
Astropecten zebra Sladen, 1883. Jour. Linn. Soc., Zodl., 17, p. 261.—1889. Challenger Ast., p. 212, pl. xxxvi, 
figs. 3, 4, pl. xxxix, figs. 7-9. 
Astropecten coppingert Bell. 1884. Alert Ech., p. 132. 
The status of the little Astropectens which are grouped under the name zebra is still 
open to question, and I do not see how any satisfactory solution of the problem can be 
reached until adult Astropectens are taken in Torres Strait. Sladen’s types were taken 
in 8 fathoms, off Cape York; 3 additional specimens, much more brightly colored, were 
secured in 6 fathoms, a little further west; to these Sladen gave the varietal name rosea. 
The difference between rosea and typical zebra, however, are similar to, and no more striking 
than, those shown by specimens of A. duplicatus of differing ages and sizes or from different 
stations in the West Indian region. It may well be doubted whether a varietal name is 
worth retaining for forms whose constancy is so dubious. 
In 1884 Bell described some young Astropectens from Torres Strait! as A. coppingerv. 
Déderlein (1896), when studying the good series of Astropectens taken in the vicinity of 
Thursday Island by Semon, convinced himself that coppingeri and zebra are identical. 
Although he had large specimens of zebra, he does not compare them with similar specimens 
of either velitaris or hemprichii. By 1904 Bell has decided that zebra is identical with 
hemprichii; he naively avoids any reference to coppingeri and figures as hemprichii 3 speci- 
mens labeled zebra by Sladen! Both von Marenzeller (in Koehler, 1910a) and Koehler 
(1910a) incline to think zebra may be the young of hemprichit. Goto (1914), however, 
considers zebra a valid species. 
There are several young Astropectens in the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy col- 
lection which are of interest in this connection. Two are cotypes of coppingert and are 
labeled ‘‘ Alert Island,’’ 2 are from the Murray Islands and labeled zebra, 1 is from Ceylon 
and is labeled zebra. The identity of the specimens from ‘Alert Island” and the Murray 
Islands is beyond question, but the individual from Ceylon is superficially quite different, 
although the differences are relatively insignificant. It seems to me very probable that 
hemprichii and some other Astropectens have young more or less variegated in color and 
showing more or less diversity in the armature of both the superomarginal and the infero- 
marginal plates. Whether zebra, when adult, is really entitled to recognition as a distinct 
species does not seem to be determinable at present. 
The specimens of zebra in the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy collection from the 
Murray Islands were received in 1912 from the Australian Museum. They were undoubt- 
edly taken by Hedley and McCulloch during their visit to the islands in 1907. As already 
stated, we met with no Astropectens during our visit to Mer. The range of zebra appears 
to be from the Murray Islands westward through Torres Strait and northward to the Mergui 
Archipelago and the coast of Madras. 
1 One of the localities given by Bell is “ Alert Island.’’ I am unable to find such an island on any chart or map 
accessible to me, but I infer that ‘Alert Rocks,” lying near the entrance to Prince of Wales Channel, may be intended. 
