282 Mr. N. Colgan o?i 



Tij^e. Adult female. B.M. no. 12. 6. 20. 3. Original 

 number 224. Collected 24th April, 1912, and presented by 

 Dr. H. G. F. Spurrell. Male and female skins, female and 

 • young in spirit examined. 



This delicate little Kerivoida belongs to Dobson's second 

 group of the genus, and would seem to be allied to K. lanosa 

 and smithii, but is markedly smaller than either. 



Perhaps its nearest relative is the Kamerun K. muscilla, 

 Thos., which is, however, distinguishable by its more inflated 

 brain-case and its interfemoral fringe. 



XXXVIII. — Self-evisceration in the Asteroidea. 

 By Nathaniel Colgan, M.R.I.A. 



In the considerable body of extant literature which deals 

 with the subject of autotomy, or self-mutilation, I can find no 

 instance on record of self-evisceration in the Asteroid section 

 of the Echinodermata, although the existence of that curious 

 propensity or infirmity in the Ilolothuroid division is well 

 known to every student of the phylum. The following notes 

 of observations made tliree years ago on some living speci- 

 mens of the common Cribella oculata of Pennant — Henricia 

 sanguinolenta, 0. F. Miiller — are accordingly published here 

 in the belief that they may contain something new and may 

 stimulate to further research. 



On the 17th April, 1909, 1 took at low tide from the shore 

 near Bullock, Dublin Bay, two living specimens of this 

 species. The larger of the two was quite regular in form, 

 with a spread of arms measuring 4 inches, the smaller, with 

 a spread of 3^ inches, had a sixth supernumerary arm from 

 the upper surface of which protruded a monstrous wart placed 

 midway between the disk and the tip of the arm. In the 

 hope that these specimens might deposit ova and so enable 

 me to study the early stages in the development of the 

 species, they were placed in sea- water, each in a separate 

 dish, just deep enough to permit of the animals being fully 

 immersed. 



Four days later, on the 21st April, on examining the 

 smaller specimen with the abnormal sixth ray, I was 

 astonished to find that it had completely eviscerated itself. 

 The paired dendroid j)yloric cfBca, closely resembling those 

 of Asterias rubens as figured by Miiller and Troschel, hung 

 in festoons from the tip of each of the five normal rays, 



