SOME JAPANESE ECHINODERMI. 



551 



The larva: of the two As tropee ten-species are of the typical 

 form, and there is no reason for giving their special characters in this 

 preliminary notice. 



Asterias calamaria at first puzzled me somewhat. Ia the younger 

 stages it undergoes autotomy and apparently does not propagate sexual- 

 ly. Nearly all the larger specimens opened contained genital organs 

 with large, white, biserially arranged eggs of an oval shape. Having 

 at length found a few specimens with ovaries of the usual Asteroid- 

 structure, I realized that the organs, at first taken for the ovaries of 

 the starfish, belonged to a parasite, most probably a Cirripedian, like 

 that known from other starfishes. I have not, however, succeeded in 

 finding any specimen with the eggs of the parasite so far advanced 

 in development that their real nature could be ascertained. 



It was only in the last days of my stay at Misaki that I got a 

 few specimens of this starfish with nearly ripe gonads, and only a 

 few of the eggs were quite ripe. I succeeded in getting some few 

 eggs fertilized and in rearing larvae only to their first stages. The 

 specific characters of the larva I can not give ; I can not even state 

 definitely whether it has a Brachiolarian-stage. However, there is all 

 reason to expect that it has that stage, like the other species of this 

 genus of which the development has been studied. 



Of Ophiurans and Holothurians I could not get sufficient ripe 

 material, but only sometimes a ripe male and sometimes a ripe female. 

 Once only I had rich material of an OphiotJirix from deep water, 

 which shed its eggs and sperm of itself. Some of the eggs were 

 fertilized and isolated, but unfortunately they did not develop. 



Of one species of Comatulids, occurring at the rocky shores close 

 to the station, I got the pentacrinoid stages in a fairly complete 

 series ; but a closer study of this form must be left till my return 

 home. 



