ANNOTATED LIST. 99 
with blackish, and becoming very dark at tips of rays (pl. 10, figs. 2 and 3). In some speci- 
mens the speckling has increased to such an extent that the rusty-red is concealed and 
the general color is a deep olive-brownish more or less closely approaching black. In all 
specimens, however, the actinal furrows and more or less space on each side are reddish 
flesh-color. At Badu the color seemed a little darker than that of most Thursday Island 
specimens. At Erub and Mer the coloration is very dark, usually appearing black abactin- 
ally when in the water. It is not, however, at all purple. When placed in the preserving 
fluid (formalin+corrosive sublimate), these dark specimens became rusty red. Preserved 
specimens show great diversity of color, ranging from bright yellow-brown or dull greenish 
yellow through various shades of brown to almost black; many of the darker specimens 
have a distinctly reddish cast. There is not in any case a trace of purple. 
Great diversity is shown by this species in the number of rays. Of 144 specimens 
examined at Thursday Island, 80 had 5 rays and 64 had 6. At Mer a 7-rayed specimen 
was found, and such individuals seem to be common in the Philippines, as there are several 
from those islands in the Museum of Comparative Zodélogy collection. As a rule, 5-rayed 
individuals have a single madreporite and 6 or 7 rayed specimens have 2, but occasionally 
a d-rayed specimen has 2, while one with 6 rays may have 3. The madreporites are always 
small, though high and rather conspicuous for that reason. Abnormal arrangements of 
rays occasionally occur, and 2 found at Thursday Island are of considerable interest. In 
one of these an extra ray had grown out from the dorsal side of the basal half of a normal 
ray and overlay it for some distance, though it was both shorter and narrower. A still 
more remarkable case (plate 10, fig. 4) is that of a ray in a half-grown 6-rayed specimen, 
which had budded out a new ray on each side near the middle; the ambulacral furrows 
of the buds are continuous with the main furrow. 
The most interesting material obtained at Mer is that which shows beyond question 
that this Lchinaster reproduces by autotomy exactly as does Linckia guildingii. This 
might have been inferred perhaps from the irregularity in the number of madreporites 
and of rays, and the tendency of the latter to be unequal, but evidence has hitherto been 
lacking. At the Murray Islands, however, six distinctly ‘‘comet’’ forms were collected; 
the first is a ray 33 mm. long and 6 mm. in diameter, at the broad end of which are 5 rays 
1 to 2 mm. long, the lateral largest, the median smallest; a second is a ray 26 mm. long 
by 5 mm. wide, with 4 rather symmetrical rays 7 to 8 mm. long at its wide end; a third 
has the main ray nearly 40 mm. long by 6 mm. in thickness and 4 very symmetrical rays 
25 to 29 mm. in length; in the fourth, the main ray is 54 mm. by 9, while the 5 budding 
rays are about 12 to 18 mm. long; in a fifth the main ray is 66 by 11 mm. and the buds are 
25 to 35 mm. long by 9 mm. wide; a sixth is less certainly a ‘‘comet,” but is notable for 
having 7 rays, the main one 44 mm. by 6 and the others 16 to 37 mm.; the probability that 
this is not a comet is increased by the fact that the shortest ray is next to the main ray 
and not opposite. A 7-rayed specimen in the Museum of Comparative Zodélogy collection 
from the Philippine Islands is more certainly a comet, for here the main ray is nearly 9 mm. 
in diameter (its distal terminal part seems to have been bitten off), while the 6-budded rays 
are only about 5 mm. through and are 31 to 35 mm. long. This definite proof of autotomous 
reproduction in luzonicus is important, as the phenomenon is not otherwise known in 
the Echinasteride. 
The identification of my Torres Strait material has forced me to face the question 
of the validity of the five species of Echinaster known as eridanella, fallax, luzonicus, pur- 
pureus, and vestitus, for the probability that they all refer to a single species has been 
increasing with the accumulation of material and knowledge. Fortunately, Savigny’s 
(1809) superb figures of purpureus enable us to fix that species perfectly, for Gray himself 
names those figures in his Synopsis (1866). De Loriol refers specimens from Mauritius 
to that form and says the color is a very deep red-purple. There are specimens in the 
