Mr. W. K. Fisher's Notes on Asteroidea. 109 



tlie chief character of the two species is the same. As 

 Dr. H. L. Clark lias suggested in a letter, the two species 

 are probably the same, although there exist certain discre- 

 pancies. Von Martens does not mention subambulacral 

 spines, but states that the furrow-spines are " in einer Reihe, 

 4 oder 5 fast gleich Giosse auf jeder Platte," and that the 

 actinal intermediate plates have two relatively long sharp 

 spines. The typo of Asterina cristata has two to four, 

 mostly three, actinal intermediate spinelets, usually six 

 furrow-spinelets webbed for about half their length, the 

 three or four median conspicuously longer than the laterals, 

 and usually four subambulacral spinelets, of which the two 

 median are much longer than the laterals. I think it is 

 possible that von Martens overlooked the small lateral 

 furrow-spinelets, although not likely ; but certainly in no 

 specimens seen by me are the furrow-spinelets ever subequal. 



The case is somewhat complicated by two specimens of a 

 race of coronata which I saw some years ago in the British 

 Museum. One was contained in a box with Nepanthia macii- 

 lata, labelled " Migupou, 7 to 12 fathoms, tine sand and coral 

 — Cuming." The other was labelled " Port Essington, 

 Australia." In the first specimen there are twenty or 

 twenty-five of the prominent plates to each fifth of the body. 

 The actinal intermediate plates have, in the neighbourhood 

 of the furrow, about five or six spines in a rude circle, one 

 spine being longer than the others ; near the ambitus there 

 are three spinelets, with often one or two standing mesad 

 from the principal comb. The furrow-spinelets are five or 

 six, webbed, the laterals shorter than the mesial spinelets ; 

 the subambulacral spinelets are four or five, shorter and 

 stouter than the furrow-spinelets, and also graduated in size, 

 the mesial spinelets being longest*. I made no notes on the 

 Australian specimen, but my impression is that it does not 

 materially differ from the other. 



Thus the actinal intermediate spinelets are more numerous 

 than in the types of corona ta and cristata, while the adambu- 

 lacral armature is about the same as that of cristata. The 

 prominent abactinal plates are fewer than in cristata, and 

 more like the condition in Japanese specimens. 



Dr. Seitaro Goto, in his work on Japanese Asteroidea, 

 carefully figures and describes a species from the southern 

 parts of Kyushu and adjacent islands which he calls Asterina 

 novce-zelandiai, Perrier, but which I believe is a form of 



* For the privilege of examining these and many other specimens of 

 Asteroidea in the British Museum (Natural History) I am indebted to 

 Professor F. Jeffrey Bell. 



