188/.] FROM THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 141 



by Dr. Anderson; and Dr. Herbert Carpenter, F.R.S., has promised 

 to discnss its relations to A. palmata in the report on the Crinoids 

 of Mergui which he has in preparation. 



ASTEROIDEA. 

 ACANTHASTER ECIIINITES. 



M. de Loriol has lately pointed out ' that the species oi Acanthaster 

 fonnd at tlie island of Mauritius is not, as has been supposed, 

 A. echinites ; a comparison of liis description and Mauritian speci- 

 mens with the figures of Ellis and Solander and examples from the 

 Andamans will be sufficient to show the student the distinctness of 

 the species. 



As the difference has only lately been pointed out, and the con- 

 fusion cleared up, it is as yet too early to say whether A. echinites 

 belongs to the eastern, and A. mauritiensis to the western side of 

 the Indian Ocean, or whether their areas of distribution overlap. 



Fromia indica. 



I have elsewhere '^ given my reasons for regarding this species, 

 described by Piof. Perrier as six-rayed, as being normally quinque- 

 r.ndiate ; a five-rayed specimen in the present collection has R equal 

 to 33, and ?=9. 



With it are two specimens which possibly belong to a different 

 species of the same genus ; they are smaller and are still quite 

 spiny. 



Culcita schmideliana. 



There is a very remarkable specimen which I fancy I am hardly 

 wrong in describing in detail ; another is of the more ordinary 

 character. 



Almost round ; the apices of the ambulacra just touch the 

 equator, so that R is almost exactly equal to r ; the ambulacra 

 narrow rapidly after reaching the actinal periphery. The ordinary 

 arrangement of the adambulacral spines is as follows : — In the inner- 

 most row four subequal spines, beside which there may be a fifth 

 smaller ; outside of and touching these there may be one large or 

 two smaller spines, and either one or both occupy as much of the 

 side of the groove as do the four spines internal to them ; outside 

 of the second there is a third row which is more irregular, especially 

 in the region of the actinostome. All the spines are stout, and 

 more or less rounded at the tip. The interambulacral area, which is 

 thickly covered with flat-headed grains, is almost perfectly triangular 

 in shape ; the number of grains in a patch varies ; the patches are 

 more closely packed in the n)iddle than at the sides of the interambu- 

 lacral triangle, and scattered among them are the ordinary granules. 

 Peripherally the patches of grains cease somewhat rapidly ; a band, 

 bare of patches, but granular and with sparsely scattered tubercles, 



^ M6m. Soc. Phys. Geneve, xxix. no. 4, p. 6. 

 = Proc. Zool. Soc. 1882, p. 12.3. 



