170 



DR. J. E. GRAY ON A NEW SPATANGUS. [Mar. 27, 



is considerably narrower than the space they occupy in the skull of 

 iV. narica above referred to. These may all be mere individual 

 peculiarities, since the skulls of the different specimens of Nasua 

 in the Museum, as I observed in the article on Ursidce above emoted, 

 are very variable. 



Hub. South America. 



3. Xote on a New Species of Spatangus. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., Y.P.Z.S., F.L.S., &c. 



Mr. Moore has kindly sent me some marine animals in spirits, 

 which have been collected by Capt. Berry, of the ship ' Richard 

 Cobden,' at Pulo Taya, in the China seas, and presented to the British 

 Museum and to the Free Museum in Liverpool by the collector. 



Among other interesting animals is a new and beautiful species of 

 Spatangus, peculiar in being marked with distinct regularly placed 

 symmetrical black stripes or spots. It belongs to the subgenus 

 Maretia. 



Spatangus variegatus. 



Spatangus (Maretia) variegatus, n. sp. 



Body depressed, ovate, pale-coloured. Ambulacra of the upper 

 surface, four oblong spots on each side of the middle of the upper 

 interambulacral spaces, the greater part of the anal spines and narrow 

 rings around the elongated spines black. Back with numerous very 

 slender elongated spines, which are more or less arched and directed 

 backwards. The oral surface nearly flat ; sternal disk with very few 

 spines ; sides with numerous close-set elongated spines, with enlarged 

 bases, and placed on perforated tubercles. The groups of short 

 crowded spines on the margins of the oral ambulacra dark brown. 



Hah. Pulo Taya. B.M. 



The two specimens vary in shape, one being more oblong than 



