ASTEROIDEA OF THE MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO. 



325 



Locality. Sir William James Island; 7th Dec. 1881. 



Remarks. I feel little hesitation in referring a single example 

 to this species, which has recently been carefully described and 

 figured by De Loriol* on the basis of material obtained from 

 Mauritius. The type specimen, preserved in the Berlin Museum, 

 was collected by Hemprich and Ehrenberg in the Eed Sea. The 

 form appears to be closely allied to Astropecten scoparius. 



3. Astropecten notookaptus, n. sp. (Plate XXVIII. figs. 

 5-8.) 



Locality. King Island (native name Pa daw). 



Bays five. 11= 16*5 mm. ; r = 6mm. R>25r. Breadth of a 

 ray between the second and third supero-marginal plates, 5*5 mm. 



Hays rather broad at the base, tapering rather rapidly on 

 the outer portion to a pointed extremity. Interbrachial arcs 

 subacute. 



The paxillar area is wide, measuring more than three times 

 the width of the supero-marginal plates about midway between 

 the base and the extremity of the ray, and is very regular in 

 composition. The paxilla?, which are large and compactly 

 crowded, have a wide tabulum on which are borne from five to 

 eight low uniform granules ; and eight to eighteen very short 

 papilliform spinelets, little more than elongate granules, surround 

 the margin and radiate outward horizontally. In the centre of 

 the disk a well-developed conical peak is present. 



The supero-marginal plates, about seventeen or eighteen in 

 number from the median interradial line to the extremity, are 

 slightly broader than long, and form a w r ell-developed rounded 

 margin to the ray. The surface of the plates is covered with large, 

 slightly spaced granules which diminish a little in size at the 

 margins, and become more or less cilia-like in the sutures or 

 channels between neighbouring plates. On the innermost plate 

 on each side of the median interradial line is a small, but well- 

 developed tubercle ; but no spinelets or tubercles of any kind are 

 borne on the other supero-marginal plates. 



The infero-marginal plates, which are much broader than high, 

 do not extend beyond the superior series. Each plate bears a 

 single lateral spine, of moderate length, which tapers throughout, 

 is sharply pointed, cylindrical, and very slightly flattened. At 

 the base of this spine are one or two small compressed spinelets 



* Mem. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Geneve, t. xxix. No. 4, p. 74, pi. xxi. figs. 7, 8. 



