1048 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
appearance, as if distinctly spaced, and are not so crowded as are those of Mediasier sequalis. The 
plates extend along ray to fifteenth inferomarginal, the outer plates being very small and isolated one 
from another. A few plates bear a low, upright, 2-or 3-jawed pedicellaria, similar to those of the 
abactinal surface. In some specimens the pedicellariae consist of little more than 2 or 3 but slightly 
differentiated granules in a group. On plates adjacent to adambulacrals the pedicellarise are usually 
higher, more differentiated, and have rather narrow subspatulate jaws. In one specimen most of the 
actinal pedicellarise have 3 jaws, and one has as many as 5. These are higher than the abactinal 
pedicellarise, the latter having jaws no larger than the granules. 
Madreporic body situated one-third the distance from center; rather small. Striations coarse and 
characteristic of genus — namely, irregularly radiating but with the furrows interrupted at the central 
end. Adcentrally to madreporic body is a large paxilla. 
Color in alcohol, bleached yellowish or pinkish. 
Variations: After the foregoing description was written, and the figures made, 26 additional 
specimens, most of them adult, were received from the U. S. National Museum. These were taken 
by the Albatross in 1891 off the south coast of Oahu Island. In these specimens the abactinal paxillse 
are relatively larger than in the type and fit closer together over the radial papular areas. The 
abactinal pedicellarise are larger than those of type, and much more numerous. They are more like 
the pedicelliarise of sequalis. They appear almost identical with pedicellarise of Mediaster bairdii, 
possibly a trifle higher. In some specimens they are very thickly scattered over both radial and 
interradial areas, there being often 2 pedicellarise on the radial paxillse. The actinal granules are 
strongly prismatic. 
Considering the specimens collectively, both those from Kauai and Oahu, the chief variations 
appear to be, in addition to the pedicellarise, in the number and character of the granules on paxillse. 
In some specimens these are more thimble-shaped or roundish, while in others they are distinctly 
prismatic. 
Localities: Type (no. 21160, U. S. National Museum) from station 4022, east coast of Kauai Island, 
399-374 fathoms, coral sand, foraminifera, rocks; bottom temperature 41°. Taken also at the following 
stations, in all 35 specimens. 
Record of localities. 
Station. 
Locality. 
Depth. 
Nature of bottom. 
3997 
Southwest of Kauai Island 
Fathoms. 
418-429 
550-409 
286-399 
444-478 
352-357 
437-632 
Fine gray sand, brown mud. 
Gray sand, foraminifera. 
Coral sand, foraminifera. 
Gray sand, globigerina. 
Fine gray sand and mud. 
Volcanic sand, foraminifera. 
4019 
East of Kauai Island 
4021 
. do 
4028 
Southwest of Kauai Island 
4123 
Southwest coast of Oahu Island 
4141 
East of Kauai . . .* 
Cruise of 1901: 
Station. 
Locality. 
Depth. 
Nature of bottom. 
3474 
3475 
South coast of Oahu Island 
do 
Fathoms. 
375 
351 
298 
Fine white sand. 
Do. 
Do. 
3476 
do 
This species appears to be most nearly related, so far as appearance is concerned, to “ Nymphaster ” 
florifer Alcock, from the Andaman Sea, 130-250 fathoms, which is probably not a Nymphaster, but a 
Mediaster. 
Genus NEREIDASTER Verrill. 
Nereidaster Veri-ill, Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. x, 1899, p. 186. Type Nymphaster symbolicus Sladen. 
The genus Nereidaster was erected for the reception of Nymphaster symbolicus Sladen, and Nym- 
phaster bipunclus Sladen. “In this group the pedicellarise are high and spatulate, as in Goniaster 
\_Phaneraster Perrier] and the adambulacral spines are in very regular parallel rows.” (Verrill, 1. c. ) 
There is also a single median row of abactinal plates between the superomarginals, which may or 
