140 ] 
RECORDS OF W.A. MUSEUM. 
^5-30 grains, a little higher than, but not essentially different from, 
those on the top. As a result of this difference in the ossicles the 
madreporic plate in ocellata is plainly visible and the papulae seem 
larger and more conspicuous than in ocellifera where also the mad- 
reporic plate is more or less concealed. The marginal plates are 
more numerous in ocellata than in ocellifera ; in a specimen of the 
former having 70 there are 23 superomargiiials on one side of a 
ray, while in an ocellifera with R:^83, there are only 18. The 
actinal intermediate areas are much more closely granulated in 
ocellata than in ocellifera, in the latter the separate plates are 
quite distinctly indicated by the groups of granules which they bear. 
The figures given by Sladen in the Challenger Report are all 
illustrations of ocellata and it seems to me probable that he had 
not seen ocellifera. 
Whether the large specimen in the M.C.Z. collection (No. 
1932) upon which Fisher made his anatomical investigations is 
ocellata or represents a new species, I am unable to decide. It is 
much larger than any ocellata I have seen, and its peculiarities may 
be a matter of age, but I confess that I think it likely it represents 
a third species. The dorsal paxilliform ossicles are close fitting 
polygons unlike any that I have seen in other Nectrias. On the 
other hand, the larger specimen of ocellata have pedicellariae and 
occasionally show inter-marginal papulae in the interbrachial arc 
(though, it must be added, very rarely), while both of these features, 
particularly emphasised by Fisher, seem to be wanting in the 
specimens of ocellifera. It seems to me that neither is a constant 
generic character. 
W hether ocellata and ocellifera have distinct geographical ranges 
remains to be determined. The exact locality whence Lamarck’s 
type came from is not known. The British Museum specimens 
described by Gray and by Perrier, the Challenger material and 
all of the specimens in the M.C.Z. are from south-eastern Australia 
or lasmania, and these are all ocellata. The two specimens before 
me from West Australia are ocellifera. So far as the evidence goes, 
then, the areas occupied by the two species do not overlap. 
The West Australian specimens have the following data : 
Between Fremantle and Geraldton, W.A., 60-100 fms. Colour 
orange. No. 4914. Two specimens. 
