ANNOTATED LIST. 67 
Like guildingii and multifora, it multiplies autotomously while young and hence the number 
of rays ranges from 4 to 9 and the number of madreporites from 1 to 5. Fisher’s admirable 
account of the species should be consulted. 
Linckia guildingii. 
Linckia guildingii Gray. 1840. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 6, p. 285.—A. Agassiz. 1877. Mem. M. C. Z., 5, p. 105, 
pl. xiv, figs. 1-6. 
Linckia pacifica Gray. 1840. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 6, p. 285. 
Ophidiaster ornithopus Miller and Troschel. 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 31. 
Ophidiaster ehrenbergii Miiller and Troschel. 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 31. 
Linckia nicobarica Liitken. 1871. Vid. Med., p. 265. 
Linckia ehrenbergii de Loriol. 1885. Mem. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Genéve, 29, No. 4, p. 31, pl. x, figs. 1-7a. 
This seems to be a truly tropicopolitan species of sea-star, absent only from the 
western coast of America. There are specimens in the Museum of Comparative Zoélogy 
from Bermuda, the Bahamas, Florida, Cuba, Jamaica, St. Kitts, Tobago, Brazil, Lower 
Guinea, Zanzibar, Queensland (Masthead Island), and Society Islands. It is also known 
from Vera Cruz, several West Indian stations besides those given, Cape Verde Islands, 
Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Red Sea, Ceylon, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 
Samoa, and Tonga. Its occurrence in Hawaii is probable but remains to be definitely 
determined. The species grows to a very large size; the largest before me (from Bermuda) 
has R=215 mm. There is much diversity in proportions, R =8-12br. and 7-13r. There 
are commonly 2 madreporites but specimens with only one are not rare, especially in the 
Pacific. Reproduction by autotomy while still young is prevalent and hence symmetrical 
5-rayed specimens are very uncommon and are usually of large size. I have tried in vain 
to find some ground by which pacifica or ehrenbergii could be distinguished from guildingit, 
but none of the supposed distinctive features have any constancy. In life, guildingii has 
quite a constant coloration. Young specimens, which live under rocks and in all sorts 
of crevices and crannies, are dull reddish, brownish, or purplish, usually variegated with 
darker shades. As they increase in size the color tends to become quite uniform and some- 
what lighter. If, as apparently happens in the ordinary course of events, they abandon 
their concealed life and come out on the surface of the reef or reef-flat, they soon become 
uniformly yellow-brown. (See de Loriol’s pl. x, fig. 1.) Specimens which retain their red 
or purple tints appear to have continued a more or less protected life. The suggestion 
here made that the change in color is associated with change in habits and habitat, lacks 
full demonstration but seems to be warranted as a hypothesis. Dry specimens are usually 
dull gray-brown or yellow-brown. At Papeete, Tahiti, in August 1913, I found on the 
surface of the reef in very shallow water a large guildingti of exactly the same shade of 
yellow-brown as a specimen which I found in Bermuda in April 1899. At Tobago, in 
April 1916, a specimen of the same color was found on sand in shallow water in Buccoo Bay. 
Such specimens undergo little color change either in alcohol or when dried. 
Linckia diplax. 
Ophidiaster diplar Miller and Troschel. 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 30. 
Linckia diplaz Liitken. 1871. Vid. Med., p. 269. 
Were it not for the account of this species given by Simpson and Brown (1910, p. 55), 
I should have referred diplaz to the synonymy of guildingii, but it is obvious, I think, that 
the sea-star of which they write is not identical with the common West Indian Linckia. 
Their description of the color is as follows, and it should be noted that no reference is made 
to any change in color during growth: ‘‘The two predominant general colors are brown 
and blue, with black dots. Many, however, are greenish-blue on the aboral surface and 
bear minute black dots which give the whole the appearance of a branching coral. The 
oral surface is purplish-red.” 
