On the Midwife Toad. 173 
Type of genus, Nepanthia platydisca, Fisher, Proc. U.S. 
Nat. Mus. vol. xlvi. p. 214, Sept. 30, 1913. 
This genus is distinguished from Asterina, in the wider 
sense, by the sharp differentiation of the plates of the centre 
of disk and the radial area from those of the lateral portion of 
the abactinal surface, by having an adambulacral armature 
of the Nepanthia type, though less extreme than that of 
maculata, and by the arrangement of the actinal intermediate 
plates, which are not in chevrons, in the ordinary sense, but 
form transverse series, separated by shallow grooves, pro- 
ceeding from the adambulacrals to the ambitus. The first 
few series do not reach the ambitus, but end rather irregu- 
larly on the inner half of the interradial line. 
_Paranepanthia probably includes Nepanthia brachiata, 
Keehler, a six-rayed species from the Andaman Islands, 
The type of the following subgenus departs sufficiently 
from the type of its genus to warrant separation :— 
GLYPHODISCUS, subgen. nov. 
Characters.—Differing from Iconaster, Sladen, s. s., in 
having conspicuously elevated and rough superomarginal 
plates; a complete series of peripheral granules on the 
abactinal plates, which, moreover, are perfectly smooth, 
lacking the tiny blister-like bosses of Jconaster; a less 
compact adambulacral armature. 
Type, Jconaster perierctus, Fisher (“‘ Four new Genera 
and Fifty-eight new Species of Starfishes from the Philippine 
Islands, Celebes, and the Moluccas,” Proe. U.S. Nat. Mus. 
xlili. p. 642, Feb, 5, 1913. Tawi Tawi Group, 97 fathoms). 
XVI.—Remarks on the Midwife Toad (Alytes obstetricans), 
with reference to Dr. P. Kammerer’s Publications*. By 
G. A. BOULENGER, F.R.S. 
HAVING recently felt bound to recommend caution in 
accepting the results of the experiments conducted in Vienna 
by Dr. Kammerer within the last fifteen years, and to express 
* 1, “Experimentelle Veriinderung der Fortpflanzungstatigkeit bei 
Geburtshelferkrote (Alytes obstetricans) und Laubfrosch (Hyla arborea),” 
Arch, f. Entwicklmech. xxii. 1906, p. 48. 
2. ‘“ Vererburg erzwungener Fortpflanzungsanpassungen,— Die Nach- 
