267 
Evidently this Ophiurid must be referred to the genus Asfro- 
charis Koehler. The type, Astrocharis virgo Koehler)), is very 
different from this species, both on account of its swollen arms 
and of its covering with fine granules on disk and arms. But the 
species A. ijimai described by Matsumoto”) is exactly inter- 
mediate between the type species and the new species described 
here. It has the same swelling of the arms, only somewhat less 
extensive than in the type, and then it has the same covering of 
small scales "as the present species. It is then evidently to the 
species ijimai that the new species has the nearest relation. The 
characters by which it differs from A. ijimai are the total absence 
of the swelling of the armbases (which cannot be due to the size, 
the specimen in hand having nearly the same diameter of disk 
(4 mm) as have the grown specimens of A. ijimai (4.5 mm)), the 
much shorter arms, and the presence of larger scales in the cover- 
ing of the disk. 
The new species is important in proving that the swelling of 
the basal part of the arms, so very conspicuous especially in the 
type species, is not a character of generic value. 
) R. Koehler. Ophiures de VExpédition du Siboga. I. Ophiures de mer 
profonde. Siboga-Exped. Monogr. XLV. 1904. p. 160. Pl. XX. Fig. 1; 
XXX, Fig. 2 
) H.Matsumoto. A Monograph of Japanese Ophiuroidea, arranged ac- 
cording to a new classification. Journ. Coll. of Sci. Tokyo. Vol. XXXVIII. 
1917. p. 56. 
23—2—-18. 
