1074 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Young: -The smallest specimen examined (R=65 mm.; r=28 mm.; measured on actinal side) is 
destitute of ail dorsal spines or tubercles, there being, along the median radial line, a series of bosses, or 
rounded elevations, where the tubercles later appear. No tubercles are present on the inferomargi- 
nals. Slit-like pedicellarise are numerous on the dorsal surface, but the larger bivalved kind are not 
so numerous as in the adult on the ventral area. Third series of adambulacral granules is developed 
on most plates, the second series consisting of 2 or 3 stout elongated granules. In a specimen in 
which R equals 70 mm. a few conical tubercles have begun to appear along the median radial line, 
and 2 in the apical area. In this specimen the third adambulacral series is fairly well developed on 
all plates. In young specimens the papular areas are relatively smaller than in the adult, and the 
trabeculae broader. The former are irregular, oval, or oblong, not triangular. In these two speci- 
mens the marginal plates are quite regular and there is no intermediate series intercalated between 
them in the interbrachial arc, as in the adult. All the granulation is more regular. In the largest of 
these immature specimens the actinal intermediate plates, roundish in shape, can quite clearly be 
seen, arranged in regular chevrons. 
Localities: Type (no. 21171, U. S. National Museum) from station 3850, south coast of Molokai 
Island, 43-66 fathoms, coarse sand and broken shells, coral; bottom temperature 71.7°. Taken also at 
the following stations, in all, 14 specimens examined: 
Record of localities. 
Station. 
Locality. 
Depth. 
Nature of bottom. 
3849 
South coast of Molokai Island 
Fathoms. 
73-43 
Coarse sand, broken shells, coral. 
Yellow sand, pebbles, coral. 
Coarse coral sand, foraminifera. 
3872 
Auau Channel, between Maui and Lanai islands 
43-32 
4072 
North coast of Maui Island 
56-59 
4075 
. . .do 
49-57 
Fine gray sand, foraminifera. 
Genus NIDORELLIA Gray. 
Nidorellia Gray, Ann. N. H., ser. 1, vol. vi, 1840, p. 277. Type, Nidorellia armata Gray. 
Nidorellia armata (Gray). 
Pentaceros ( Nidorellia ) armatus Gray, Ann. N. H., vi, 1840, p. 277; Synopsis Starfishes, p. 7, pi. xiv, fig. 1-3, 1866. 
Nidorellia armata Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad., vol. I (2d pt.), 1867, p. 251. Perrier, Revision des StelliSrides, p. 251, 1875. 
Oreaster armatus Bell, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1884, p. 81. 
Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell in his paper “ The Species of Oreaster” records Nidorellia from the Sandwich 
Islands. This form was not found by the Albatross Expedition. 
Genus ASTERODISCUS Gray. 
Asterodiscus Gray, Proc. Zool. Soe. London, part xv, 1847, p. 75. Type, Asterodiscus elegans Gray. See also Ann. N. H., 
1847, p. 196; Synop. Spec. Starfish, British Mus., 1866, p. 5, pi. xn, figs. 1 and 2. 
This peculiar genus may be readily distinguished from others of the Hawaiian region by its thick 
body, short rays, and tough test covered all over with tubercles, large and small, among which are 
many granules, ranging down to the most minute. The general form is depressed, while the rays are 
blunt, and bear at the tip 2 large convex, oval ossicles, between which is set the tubercular terminal 
plate. Culcita, the only other genus closely resembling this, entirely lacks the 2 enlarged plates. 
The specimen at hand differs in several important respects from both Gray’s figures and descrip- 
tion of Asterodiscus elegans (Synopsis, p. 5, pi. 12, figs. 1 and 2). The body is not so pentagonal, for 
there are distinct rays present which are more marked in this adult individual than in the young speci- 
men of elegans which Gray has figured (op. cit., fig. 2). There is no distinct medioradial line of 
tubercles larger than the rest. Gray’s description states that the tubercles of elegans are “ flat- topped”, 
and a wain, “truncate”, which in nowise applies to our specimen, for here the tubercles are roundish- 
subconicle, or acorn-shaped with a blunt point. Gray further says: The young specimens have indis- 
tinct marginal ossicula”. One specimen, which is clearly adult, has both series of marginal plates 
quite distinct, the inferomarginals the more numerous; while in 2 young specimens (R=10 mm.) the 
marginal plates are as distinct as in any goniasterid, the animal resembling, at first glance, a starfish 
