240 MR. H. L. CLARK ON SOME 
Abrolhos are typical littoral sea-stars. None is exactly like Koeliler's 
figure of F. andamanensis, but the one most like it is only a trifle larger 
and has the rays just a little bit more slender. The abactinal plating is 
very much as Koehler shows it, but the rays are not so flattened. This 
specimen was taken at Pelsart Island, and no two of the rays are the same 
length. The longest has R = 32 mm., the shortest only 17. The colour is 
very light, almost a dirty whitish (dry). A specimen of about the same 
size from "Wallaby Group. Shore" is brown in colour, and the abactinal 
plates are no more numerous than in the Pelsart specimen. At the base of 
the ray one can count six or perhaps seven longitudinal series of these 
plates. A larger specimen from the Wallaby station has R = 35 mm., and 
there are nine or ten series of abactinal plates, which are noticeably smaller 
and of more uniform size than in the other specimen. In this larger 
specimen the rays are nearly equal, only one being noticeably shorter than 
the others, and they are distinctly terete and not flattened, the height at 
the base being 9 mm. and the width 11. The colour is brown as in the 
smaller specimen. Shore-collecting at Long Island yielded an individual 
very rnuch like those from the Wallaby Group with 11 = 35 mm., but having 
the rays a trifle more flattened (11'5 X 8'5 mm.). Dredging off Long 
Island yielded a slightly larger specimen, in which the longest R = 40 mm., 
but br = 10 mm. and height of arm at base about 8 mm. This specimen 
is also much lighter coloured, nearly white. Finally, from the reef-flat at 
Pelsart Isle is a much larger Fromia, with R = 54 mm., br = 12, and 
height of arm at base only 7 mm., of a pale brown colour and having 10 or 
11 longitudinal series of abactinal plates. The disconcerting feature of this 
specimen is that many of the adambulacral plates on the basal half of 
the raj's have three furrow spines. Thus the flatness of the rays and the 
adambulacral armature approach closely to F. milleporella. On the other 
hand, the large number of series of abactinal plates and the more' slender 
rays give this large Fromia a different facies from ordinary F. milleporella^ 
and taken in connection with the presence of only two furrow spines on 
most of the plates, warrant us in considering F. andamenensis as a distinct 
species. Information regarding the colour in life would perhajos be decisive, 
but the labels with the present specimens are blank on that point. 
Fromia elegans. 
H. L. Clark, 1921, EchiDoderm Fauna of Torres Strait, p. 43. 
There are two Fromias in the collection which are labelled "Colour — 
Brown dark. Locality — 1st Island. Dredge." The smaller has all the rays 
broken ; it resembles the small specimen of F. andamanensis from Pelsart 
Isle, but the abactinal plates are noticeably larger. The otlrer specimen is 
perfect and has R = 40 mm., r and br = 10 mm. The disk and raj's are 
quite flat, the height of the arms at base being only about 6-7 mm. 
