82 THE ECHINODERMS OF TORRES STRAIT. 
lected has R =32 mm., r=6 mm., and br =7 mm.; the smallest are not half so large. The 
coloration in life (pl. 7, fig. 1) was gray blotched with brownish red, but some individuals 
were much darker than the one figured. Preserved material is gray or brown indistinctly 
blotched with a darker shade. Individuals brought into the laboratory were hardy but 
sluggish and revealed nothing of interest in their habits. 
On studying my Australian materia] after my return to Cambridge, I decided this 
sea-star was an undescribed species of Ophidiaster and I was interested to find in the 
Museum collection 3 specimens of what is evidently the same species, from Port Galera, 
Mindoro, Philippine Islands. Some months later Dr. W. K. Fisher visited the Museum 
and examined our Australian and East Indian sea-stars. He took a Murray Island speci- 
men of this species away with him and subsequently when returning it wrote: 
“This seems to me to be but a variety of my O. trychnus (1913, p. 215). It is as much like 
it as two peas, except it has no pedicellarix, and the transverse series of two subambulacral spines 
is at base of ray only. See if your Mindoro specimen has pedicellarix. I don’t think Gray has 
described this form.’ 
Examination of other specimens soon showed that the one Fisher had taken is the 
only dry one in the collection which has no pedicellarie; they are present in all other indi- 
viduals even the smallest. The degree of completeness of the two series of subambulacral 
spines is subject to great diversity in different specimens. I was therefore expecting to 
label the material Ophidiaster trychnus Fisher, when a careful examination of Liitken’s 
diagnosis and description of his O. granifer, from the Tonga Islands, impressed me with the 
conviction that he was dealing with this same sea-star. Further study confirmed this 
conviction and I therefore concluded trychnus is a synonym of granifer. But to settle the 
matter beyond question I sent a specimen to Dr. Mortensen, who compared it with Liitken’s 
type from Tonga which is in the Museum at Copenhagen. He assures me there is no 
doubt that the species is identical with Liitken’s. 
Fisher’s only specimen is about two-thirds grown (R=19 mm.) and was taken at 
Port Palapag on the north coast of Samar, probably on a reef. Liitken’s material from 
Tonga has R =30 mm. and the color was ‘‘brown, here and there gray with dark spots.” 
Perrier (1875, p. 392) carelessly puts granifer as a synonym under O. pusillus, quite unmind- 
ful of Liitken’s definite statement that there are 8 series of papular areas, whereas he him- 
self says of pusillus, ‘‘les aires poriféres forment six rangées longitudinales.” Sladen (1889, 
p. 782) rescued granifer from this untimely fate, and I trust the present account and figures 
given may suffice to preserve it indefinitely. The present known range of the species is 
from the Philippines southward to Queensland and southeastward to the Tonga islands. 
Ophidiaster armatus. 
Koehler. 1910. Ast. et Oph. des files Aru et Kei, p. 277, pl. xv, fig. 8; pl. xvii, fig. 6. 
This is a well-marked species, not always, however, attaining its generic and specific 
characters completely until full-grown, 7.e., with R =50 mm. or more, for Koehler says 
that in one specimen with R =45 or 46 mm. the actinal series of papular areas seemed 
to be quite wanting. In a specimen before me from Ponape, Caroline Islands, with 
R=29 mm., the actinal series of pores are imperfect, but they are evident nevertheless 
on the basal half of each ray. Possibly Koehler’s anomalous specimen was not really 
this species but was actually a species of Tamaria. In any case, armatus seems to be 
more nearly allied to Tamaria than is any other Ophidiaster. Besides the types from 
the Aru Islands and the specimen at hand from Ponape, the only known example of this 
species is a very small one (R=17 mm.) recorded by Koehler from the Andaman 
Islands. It is difficult to see how a specimen of this size could be certainly distinguished 
from Tamaria fusca. 
