LO, “s 
Asterias mollis Hutton. 
Farquhar, ny cit., 1898, p. 316. 
Stations 9, 16. 
This species was obtained off the east coast of Otago. It does 
not appear to*be so widely distributed as the preceding. Farquhar 
refers only to Lyttelton as its provenance, but it occurs, though not 
very abundantly, at Dunedin. 
- OPHIUROIDEA. 
Ophiomyxa australis Muller and Troschel. 
Farquhar, loc. cit., 1898, p. 309. 
This is a very common denizen of the rock-pools of the southern 
portion of New Zealand ; indeed, it appears to be the commonest of 
our ophiurids. It has, ‘too, a yery wide distribution outside the 
limits of our area. (See also Farquhar [18].) 
, 
Astrotoma waitei, sp. nov. 
Plate LX, figs. 1-6. . 
Stations 15,-16, 22. 
Astrotoma is one of the few genera in which the arms can be rolled 
inwards towards the mouth; and these arms are unbranched. 
This is the first recorded occurrence of the genus in New Zealand 
waters. .Three specimens were received by me ; when dried they are 
a dirty white in colour. 
The diameter of the disc is 33mm.; the height in the centre is 
20mm. ; the length of the arm is’ + 130 mm, ; the width: of the arm 
at base is 9mm. ; height of the arm is 7 mm. ‘As the tips of the arms 
were more or less coiled, it is difficult to determine accurately their 
lengths ; but the above is an approximation. 
The upper surface of the disc is covered by closely set, rounded 
scales of two chief sizes, though others of intermediate size occur; the 
smaller ones filling the gaps between the larger, which are about 1 mm. 
in diameter. They have no definite arrangement. In the interbrachial 
spaces the small ones decrease in size as the margin is approached, and 
here the larger ones become fewer, so that the intergenital areas are 
finely granulated, the granules being rather more inclined to be spinous 
than elsewhere. The adradial plates, which are about 5mm. broad 
near the edge of the disc, and are covered by the scales, form marked 
ridges extending to the centre of the disc, which is, in the dried speci- 
mens at any rate, slightly raised above the general surface. 
The actinal or oral surface is tesselated with closely set, flattened, 
and nearly uniform granules, smaller than those on the lower surface 
of the arms. 
