83 
ECHINODERMA. 
By W. B. Benuam, D.Sc., F.R.S., University of Otago. 
Plates VII-XI.* 
Mr. Waite was good enough to place the echinoderms in my hands 
for identification, which at first seemed likely to be no serious task, 
for this Museum has a good collection of native representatives of the 
group, while the useful lists and notes and descriptive papers by Mr. 
Farquharson served to simplify the task. 
One of the first species that I happened to examine was the so- 
called Salmacis globator, in reality an Echinus, an account of which 
I have recently published. The discovery that this little Hchinus 
had for nearly thirty years been masquerading under a name to which 
it had no shadow of right put me on my guard as to the possibilities 
of other errors having crept into identifications made in early days of 
zoological research in New Zealand. Again, I soon found that the 
generic names of some of our best-known starfishes have in recent 
years received new interpretations, necessitating the removal of the 
species to other genera, and that old genera have been broken up as 
an outcome of new knowledge. 
I was thus soon involved in the tedious task of searching the 
“ Zoological Record” for the last twenty years—that is, the period 
that has elapsed since the publication of the report of the “ Challenger” 
—and during this period several important expeditions have been 
undertaken by American and European scientific men to all parts 
of the ocean, which has resulted in a great accession of new material, 
and has led to repeated revision of the work of earlier naturalists. 
Unfortunately, the reports of these expeditions are not available 
in the libraries in New Zealand, hence I have had to rely on the meagre 
information contained in such text-books as Bronn’s “ Thier-reichs,”’ 
the “ Zoological Record,” and a few memoirs to which I happen to 
have access; so that, under the circumstances, it is quite possible 
that I have fallen into new errors. For example, relying on the 
“ Thier-reichs ” and on Yves-Delages’ “ Zoologie Concrete” as being 
trustworthy guides in systematic work, I placed Hchinus albocinctus 
in Mortensen’s genus Pseudechinus ; but I have since become aware 
* For explanation of plates see p. 115. 
