42 THE ECHINODERMS OF TORRES STRAIT. 
Fromia indica. 
Scytaster indicus Perrier. 1869. Ann. Sci. Nat. (5), 12, p. 255. 
Fromia indica Perrier. 1875. Rey. Stell., Arch. Zool. Exp. 4, p. 177 (441)—Koehler. 1910. Indian Mus. 
Ast., p. 140, pl. xvii, figs. 7, 8. 
Koehlerhas again placed all students of sea-stars under great obligation by his figures 
of the holotype of this species. Bell (1882, p. 123) records a 5-rayed specimen in the British 
Museum without locality. In 1887 he records the species from the Andaman Islands, but 
most exasperatingly fails to give any information about the specimen or specimens. Judg- 
ing from the original description and Koehler’s figures it does not seem to me that indica 
is beyond the limits of possible diversity of milleporella. I have not, however, seen any 
specimen of the common Fromia in which there were three so conspicuous series of swollen 
plates on each ray, but some individuals from Mauritius approach the appearance of indica 
so closely as to suggest identity. It should be remembered that the holotype of indica 
is hexamerous and has R only 26 mm. 
Fromia pacifica! sp. nov. 
(Plate 31, Figures 5 and 6). 
R=36 mm., r=7 mm., R=5r+; br=8 mm., R=4.5 br. Disk small and flat. Rays 
long, narrow, tapering to tip, flat. Abactinal skeleton made up of relatively large, slightly 
convex plates; there are three more or less regular longitudinal series on each ray, but only 
the middle one reaches the tip, though it is usually accompanied on one side or both by 
isolated plates representing the lateral series; the plates are flatter and less regularly 
arranged on disk than on the rays. Whole abactinal surface, including the superomarginals, 
covered by a close, uniform coat of small granules (about 30 to a square millimeter) ; these 
are smallest along the lateral sutures of the marginals and largest near the center of the 
abactinal plates, but the difference between largest and smallest is very slight. Supero- 
marginals about 22 on each side of a ray, but the number varies more or less, owing to 
the intercalation of smaller plates between larger ones on distal half of ray; there seems to 
be no regularity about this intercalation. (In the paratype, with R=37 mm., there are 
only 17 or 18 superomarginals and the intercalation of smaller plates is exceptional.) The 
basal half dozen and the terminal 4 or 5 are wider (or higher) than long; the others are 
longer than wide, often markedly so. On the abactinal and superomarginal plates near 
arm-tip, some of the granules distal to center are somewhat enlarged, but not conspicu- 
ously so. Terminal plate small, thick, and bare; the abactinal granulation does not en- 
croach on the basal half and there are no tubercles or granules on it anywhere. Infero- 
marginal plates somewhat more numerous than those of upper series, there being 20 or 21 
on a side in the paratype and 24 or 25 in the holotype; they are very similar to the supero- 
marginals in size and appearance, except that on the distalmost 6 or 8 the central granules 
are much more evidently enlarged; but these large granules are not conspicuous enough 
to attract attention. Actinolateral plates in 3 series, the second extending well beyond 
middle of ray; the third series is more or less rudimentary and does not extend beyond 
the fifth or sixth inferomarginal; it is not easy to distinguish in the holotype; granulation 
of actinolateral plates coarser than that of marginals, especially at center of each plate. 
Papulz isolated, as usual in the genus; abactinally there are 5 to 7 around the larger plates, 
but they do not extend to arm-tip; actinally there are two series, the inner extending 
nearly or quite to the twentieth inferomarginal, the outer ending at about the twelfth; 
there are also a few intermarginal papule; none is surrounded by conspicuously enlarged 
granules as they usually are in F. monilis. No pedicellarie anywhere. Madreporite 
small, flat, and inconspicuous, separated from the superomarginals by less than its own width. 
1 Pacifica=of the Pacific, in reference to the distribution. 
