132 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



27. Luidia, sp. 



A single dried specimen of a species of this genus was taken at 

 Port Darwin. Though it is not in a condition to be described, it is 

 right to direct attention to it, as no species of Luidia is mentioned 

 either by Prof. Perrier or by Air. Tenison- Woods in their lists of 

 Starfishes of the Australian seas. The example in question was 

 greatly injured during life, and the arms, of which there are only 

 five, differ considerably in form and length. It cannot be regarded 

 as belonging to Gray's species L. hardwickii on account of the 

 greater stoutness of the ventral plates and of the spines found on 

 them ; the tufts on the paxillae are likewise made up of stouter 

 spinules, and the characters of the adambulacral spines will, it is 

 almost certain, be found to be very different when a more satis- 

 factory specimen is obtained. 



28. Astropecten coppingeri. 



Dr. Coppinger has forwarded examples of a species already repre- 

 sented in the Museum, but of which I have never been able to find a 

 description. The species, however, is not, I should imagine, a rare 

 one, and it is certainly one that has not yet been recorded as from 

 the Australian seas. 



It is distinguished by the fact that it has only four spines on each 

 series of supero-marginal plates, and these are confined to the two 

 plates on either side of the apes of the interradial angle. 



B, = 305, r= 8. Breadth of arm at base 7*5 millim. Arms 

 taper gradually and regularly ; about twenty-five supero-marginal 

 plates, which are higher than broad and very high in the angle of 

 the arm, where they are narrower at their ventral ends ; the plates 

 that do not bear spines are regularly covered with a somewhat 

 coarse granulation, which may almost become spinous ; the two 

 terminal plates are large, prominent, and smooth ; the space be- 

 tween the arms and on the disk is regularly filled with not large 

 paxilla?, provided generally with a central tubercle and a circlet of 

 from eight to ten tubercles around their head. The spines of the 

 infero-marginal plates are prominent and lie on the sides of the 

 arms, so that they are visible from the abactinal surface. Inter- 

 nally to these long stoutish spines, three smaller ones are to be found 

 on the actinal surface in the same transverse line ; the intermediate 

 space is filled up by a coarse granulation or by spinous process is. 

 The spines bordering the ambulacral groove are closely packed ; there 

 are three or, more rarely, two on the side of each plate ; these are 

 elongated and rather delicate : beyond this internal row there is a 

 row of stouter shorter spines, and beyond these are others which 

 become more or less confounded with the covering of the ventral 

 plates. 



Madrcporic plate not detected. The characters of the paxUlae 

 already described do not hold for the region of the disk, where 



