108 Mr. W. K. Fisher's Notes on Asteroidea. 



from off California, deep water) was described by me as a 

 neighbour of the curious polybrachiate Pycnopodia of Stimp- 

 son. I think the genus is related, instead, to Coronaster. 

 It is notable for the suppression of the alternate super- 

 marginal plates and the reduction of the abaetinal skeleton to 

 spaced circular plates without trace of connectives. The 

 marginal and abaetinal plates bear an acicular spine surrounded 

 by a retractile sheath with an expanded distal crown covered 

 with numerous pedicellaria3. The atnbulacral, adambulacial, 

 and oral plates are similar to those of Coronaster. 



In Labidiaster, Coronaster, Rathbunaster, and certain 

 genera of the Brisiugida3 there are two gonads to each ray ; 

 each gonad opens upon the side of the ray at some distance 

 from the base. All three genera, as well as the Brisingidpe, 

 have a single ampulla to each tube-foot. 



The family Pedicellasteridae, if these views are correct, 

 would consist of the subfamily Pedicellasteiiuae with Pedi- 

 cellaster, Lytaster, and Gasiraster, and of the Labidiasterhuc 

 with Labidiaster, Coronaster, and Rathbunaster. 



Asterina coronata and Asterina cristata. — In the ' Archiv 

 fur Naturgeschichte/ vol. xxxii. ? 1806, p. 73, von Martens 

 describes Asterina coronata from Batjan, Molucca Islands, 

 and from Larentuka, Flores Island, and records its occurrence 

 at Amboina. His description states that the relation of the 

 minor to the major radius is as 1 to 2 or 2%, that the abaetinal 

 plates are so arranged that the dorsal surface has a honey- 

 combed appearance, the plates bearing five or more spinelets, 

 and that scattered over the dorsal surface are groups of two 

 to four heavy spinelets with a common base, such groups 

 being found on the sides and radial regions of the ray, but 

 not close to the border. On the disk these special spinelets 

 outline an irregular pentagon. 



In the ' Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washing- 

 ton/ vol. xxix., p. 27, Feb. 1916, I described Asterina cristata 

 from the Caroline Islands, the special peculiarity of which is 

 the presence of a variable number of abaetinal plates (upward 

 of fifty to a ray), elevated and tubercular in form, and sur- 

 mounted by one to five unequal, robust, pointed spines, the 

 largest being four or five times as long as the spinelets of the 

 other plates, and many times greater in diameter. These 

 elevated plates, with their tuft of enlarged spines, 1 take to 

 be the same as von Martens's " Biischel von 2-4 starken 

 Stacheln mit gemeinsamer Basis/' which he says, " stehen 

 auf den Armen ziemlich zerstreut, sowohl auf dem Riicken 

 als an den Seiten, aber nie ganz nahe am Rande." Thus 



