90 THE ECHINODERMS OF TORRES STRAIT. 
distribution of fusca. While Bell records megaloplax from Albany Island in Torres Strait, 
it is not certain that fusca occurs in that region; it is quite possible that Bell’s specimens 
were young Tamaria tuberifera. There is no doubt, however, that fusca occurs on the coast 
of northwestern Australia (Dampier Archipelago and Holothuria Bank), in the Philippines 
(Migupou, wherever that may be!), and at the Andaman Islands. Bell (1903, p. 245) 
records it from Zanzibar, 3 to 5 fathoms, but as he gives no data whatever about the speci- 
mens it is possible they really belong to the form described beyond as T’. lithosora. Possibly 
fusca also occurs on the coast of Ceylon. It is obviously not acommon species at any place 
it is as yet known to inhabit. 
: Tamaria tuberifera. 
Ophidiaster tuberifer Sladen. 1889. Challenger Ast., p. 404, pl. Ixv, figs. 1-4. 
(Plate 8, Figure 1.) 
This is one of the finest sea-stars in the Ophidiasteride, the conspicuous papular areas 
giving an elegant appearance to the symmetrical, cylindrical rays. The color is striking 
because unusual and is well preserved in dry specimens, save for the loss of the delicate 
tints of red and green, which are evident in life. Near Badu, on November 1, 1913, in water 
8 to 12 feet deep, we found two specimens of this species, which are notable for their large 
size and the complete absence of tubercles. Sladen’s type had R =48 mm. and the specimen 
taken by Semon at Thursday Island was only a little larger (R =55 mm.), while Koehler’s 
specimen from the Andaman Islands was smaller, though no measurements are given. One 
of our specimens (pl. 8, fig. 1) has R=96 mm. The proportions are not noticeably different 
in these big specimens, but the entire lack of tubercles is very striking and recalls at once 
Koehler’s statement (1910, p. 148) that his specimen lacked tubercles on the carinal plates 
and on many of the superomarginals. Apparently the presence of the tubercles is a youthful 
character, but subject to no little individual diversity. Save for Koehler’s specimen from 
the Andaman Islands, this species is known only from Thursday Island and Badu, in 
Torres Strait. 
Tamaria lithosora* sp. nov. 
(Plate 31, Figures 7 and 8.) 
R =40-42 mm.; r=7-8 mm.; br =8-9 mm.; R =5.5-6r or 4.5-5 br. Disk flattened, 
but elevated. Rays tapering steadily from base to bluntly pointed tip. Papular areas 
rather large with 8 to 10 papule (on basal half of ray), not much sunken; the median series 
on each side does not extend clear to tip of ray, so there are only 4 series on terminal 6 to 7 
mm. Abactinal plates somewhat elevated, in 3 series above superomarginals as usual, 
a carinal row and a lateral one on each side; lateral rows dwindle distally and disappear 
about 6 mm. from tip of ray. Whole animal covered by a thick skin bearing a coarse and 
uneven granulation; at the center of each abactinal and marginal plate is a single, low, 
rounded, smooth tubercle or more commonly about 3 such tubercles more or less fused 
(apparently) into one; when single this tubercle is 0.50 to 0.75 mm. in diameter, but when 
the result of fusion it may be a full millimeter; surrounding this tubercle or tubercle-group 
are a few coarse grains, smooth and rounded, and these gradually pass into smaller granules 
on the lower parts of the plates and on the papular areas. On the disk plates the tubercle- 
group may contain 5 to 8 tubercles, but nowhere is the contrast between the tubercle 
groups and the surrounding grains and granules abrupt. Terminal plate hemispherical, 
smooth, 1.5 mm. in diameter, without tubercles. Madreporic plate elevated, convex, 
circular, 2.75 mm. in diameter. No pedicellarie anywhere. 
Actinal surface densely clothed with thick, somewhat squamiform granules, without 
sign of papule or pedicellariz. Very narrow furrows, mere lines, run at right angles to 
ambulacral furrow from adambulacral to inferomarginal plates, every other one continuing 
1 Aiboc = stone + owpds = heap, in reference to the heaps of granules on the abactinal plates. 
