ANNOTATED LIST. 65 
The smallest specimen I have seen has R=18 mm. The madreporite is small but 
distinct, and there are 5 subequal rays. On the abactinal surface of each ray is a median 
series and on each side of it a laterodorsal series of plates, while between them there is 
on each side the beginnings of an additional series of much smaller plates. The terminal 
plate and a number of markedly convex abactinal plates near it are quite bare. There are 
3 or 4 papule in each area. There are 3 quite distinct series of actinolateral plates on each 
side of the ambulacral furrow. The adambulacral armature at this youthful stage is very 
interesting for the furrow spines are not separated at all by granules. On each adambulacral 
plate are 3 furrow spinelets, the most adoral largest and the distalmost scarcely half as large 
as the middle one; the 3 are closely appressed in a slightly oblique, sloping series. Specimens 
only a little older have 2 granules between the larger spines, which are pushed apart by their 
development. The adult commonly has 5 furrow spinelets on each plate, for not only does 
the small one persist but two others, each a little smaller than the preceding, arise distal to 
it; the development of these spinelets accompanies the increase in number of granules 
between the larger spinelets. The small spinelets are so high up within the ambulacral 
furrow that they are ordinarily quite out of sight. In specimens with R =25 mm. or 
more the terminal plates as well as all the distal abactinal plates are covered with granules. 
Multiplication by autotomy does not occur ordinarily in levigata, but new rays may 
arise from an old one, at least if part of the disk is present. There is in the Museum of 
Comparative Zoélogy a specimen consisting of an old ray 70 mm. long, an adjoining old 
ray 30 mm. long with a regenerated tip of 15 mm. additional, an adjoining third ray 15 mm. 
old and 15 mm. new, and 3 new rays, 27 to 30 mm. long. In this peculiar specimen there 
are 4 madreporites; 3 form a curved, irregular series, more or less in contact with each 
other along an interradial line, while the fourth is in the next interradius. More than one 
madreporite is very unusual in levigata and specimens with 6 rays are very rare. Speci- 
mens with 4 rays are, however, fairly common; at Mer about one specimen in every 200 
was tetramerous. Specimens from different localities show considerable diversity in the 
relative length and slenderness of the arms. At Mer all the individuals found (many 
hundred) were of the short-rayed form to which Gray gave the name crassa; in these R = 
5-6br. In large specimens from Zanzibar R =8-10br, but intermediate specimens occur 
between these two extremes. An individual from Fiji which I have referred to this species 
(Museum of Comparative Zoélogy No. 2658 )is notable because in alcohol its color was a 
deep greenish-blue and the surface of the body was almost as smooth as in Leiaster. Dried, 
however, this individual can not be distinguished from levigata by any tangible characters 
and I am quite at a loss to account for its peculiarities. 
The limits of the distribution of this species are somewhat uncertain because of its 
confusion with other species, but it certainly occurs in the Philippines, at Fiji, in the New 
Hebrides, at Samoa, at Erub and Mer in Torres Strait, and at Green Island off Cairns, 
Queensland. It extends southward on the Barrier Reef at least to the Palm Islands (lat. 
19°), but it does not occur at Thursday Island or in that part of Torres Strait. Koehler 
lists it from the Aru Islands and it is common on the north coast of New Guinea. West- 
ward it seems to reach Zanzibar, but Simpson did not find it on the Portuguese East African 
coast. It probably reaches the Red Sea and certainly occurs at Ceylon. Eastward it 
reaches the Society Islands but apparently does not occur at the Hawaiian Islands. It 
has not yet been recorded from that group, which would hardly be true if so conspicuous 
a shore form were found there. In the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy collection are 
two supposedly Hawaiian specimens, one labeled ‘‘Sandwich Islands” and one labeled 
“Hilo,” but in neither case is the label sufficiently well authenticated to make it reliable. 
There are indubitable specimens, however, from the Society, Caroline, Marshall, Gilbert, 
Fiji, Samoan, and Solomon Islands, and from Amboina, Halmaheira, Jappen Island (New 
Guinea), and from the New Hebrides. 
