ME. H. FAEQUHAE OlS" KEW ZEALAKD ECHIN-ODERMS. 193 



same in both species. They may be easily distinguished, however, 

 by the diiference in size and in the colour of the tube-feet ; this 

 latter may be dark in A. BodolpJii, but it is certainly not the 

 bright vermilion so strikingly characteristic of the New Zealand 

 species. The skin on the abactinal surface is not so thick, the 

 wreaths of pedicellariae around the abactinal spines are much 

 smaller, and both kinds of pedicellarige are smaller and far less 

 numerous than in A. scahra. 



AsTEKOPsis iMPEEiALis, sp. n. (Plate 13, figs. 1, 2.) 



E = 58 mm. ; r = :-!0 mm. 



Porm substellate, flat; interbrachial arcs well rounded. Eays 

 short, broad throughout their length, tapering to a rounded 

 extremity. The plates on the abactinal surface are very irre- 

 gular ; on the disc the larger plates are flat, angular, and con- 

 nected by smaller narrow plates, forming an irregular broad 

 meshwork ; on the rays the plates are somewhat rounded and 

 tumid. The marginal plates are thick and large, overlapping, 

 obliquely placed and 'somewhat irregular. Those of the superior 

 series on the rays are pear-shaped, becoming roundly oblong and 

 transversely placed in the interbrachial arcs. There are ten or 

 eleven plates between the middle of the interbrachial arc and the 

 tip of the ray, both above and below ; the outermost one or two 

 are much smaller than the rest. The plates on the actinal 

 surface of the interbrachial spaces are slightly imbricating, 

 forming a closely packed pavement, but not so regular either in 

 form or disposition as in A. vernicina. The adambulacral 

 armature consists of two single series, as in A. vernicina ; the 

 spines of the furrow series are in pairs (two on each plate) ,; they 

 are rather long, thin, and cylindrical ; those of the outer series 

 (actinal spines) are single except near the mouth, where the 

 plates bear two spines each, and there may be a plate here and 

 there further out with two spines ; these spines are short, rather 

 stout, somewhat flattened, and bluntly pointed. The whole of 

 the actinal and abactinal surfaces is covered with thin trans- 

 parent skin. The madreporite is not large, but distinct ; it is 

 situated near the centre of the disc. The anal orifice is distinct, 

 situated near the centre of the disc, slightly towards the side 

 distant from the madreporite. 



In defining the genera Asteropsis and Dermasterias, Mr. Sladen 



