EASTERN TROPICAL PACIFIC ASTEROIDEA. 
INTRODUCTION. 
THE collections of sea-stars made by the ALBATROss on her Tropical Pacific 
expeditions were not large, but as they contained much valuable material from 
deep water they were entrusted to Prof. Hubert Ludwig, by whom the report 
on the Panamic collection of 1891 was prepared. The collection made in 1899- 
1900 contained but forty-two specimens of thirteen species, of which ten were 
well-known littoral forms while three were deep-sea species, new to science; 
these thirteen species are included in the Memoir on the Panamic starfishes 
which was published in 1905 (Mem. M. C. Z., 32). The collection made in 
1904-05 was much larger and Ludwig never completed his work on it. In 1907 
(Zool. Anz., 31, p. 312-319) he published a preliminary description of five new 
species and a new variety of Porcellanasteridae, but his study of the other 
families was unfinished at the time of his death in 1913. Later the collection 
was sent to Cambridge together with his notes, some of which were apparently 
in form for publication. It was at first thought that these notes would be of 
service in the preparation of the present report, but it soon became evident that 
the correlation between the notes and the collection was too imperfect to permit 
this. There are notes on species, including descriptions of new forms, which 
are not in the collection as returned to Cambridge and there are many species 
in the collection not mentioned in the notes. Under the circumstances there- 
fore, I have decided to base this report exclusively on the collection as returned 
to Cambridge. 
The collection at present consists of 235 specimens of twenty-eight species 
and one variety, but 148 of the specimens represent three species and four 
additional species total fifty specimens. Three fourths of the species therefore 
are represented on an average by fewer than two specimens each. Of the twenty- 
eight species, six are littoral and twenty-two are deep-water forms. Of the 
littoral species, five are common and long-known species, while one is of ex- 
ceptional interest, being a new asteriid from Easter Island. Of the deep-water 
species, eight are as yet undescribed forms while five others were new to science 
when the collection was sent to Ludwig; these (as already stated) have been 
