Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

—117ECHINODERMATA.F. JEFFllEY BELL.The chief points of interest attached to the ' Alert ' collection ofEchinoderms may be indicated as follows :Though there are no new Echinoidea, there are some very preciousseries of some species, Maretia platwlata being notably wellrepresented. Similarly the series of some of the Asterids has givenus evidence of a variability that would be almost incredible but forthe careful registration of the localities of the species. Eare andnew forms of Ophiurids and Asterids will, on inspection of the succeedingsystematic list, be found to be well represented : OpMotlirixhas a large number of forms, the exact delimitation and definition ofwhich has been to me a matter of just as much anxiety and doubtas it has been to my predecessors ; but a study of the collection hasled me to a somewhat important conclusion, in that I have beencompelled by the evidence to attach much less weight than somehave done to the characters of the coloration *.The question of coloration of forms has taken on almost a newaspect since the publication by Mr. Seebohm of his views as to thevalue of the pattern of colour in the Turdinse (Cat. Birds B.M. v.p. viii) ; while, on the other hand, the recent statements of such experiencedentomologists as Butler, who thinks that in time it willbe impossible to decide, without rearing from the egg, whether anyform is a species, a hybrid, or a variety (Trans. Ent. Soc. 1880,p. 200), and Elwes, in whose opinion {I. c. p. 134) climate, food, andconditions of life will more than account for the change in tint ofcertain representative species, seem to indicate that in the group ofthe Lepidoptera, where coloration has been so much attended to,those who are among the most experienced are learning to doubt itsvalue, and to recognize, as the professed students of ichthyology(see Giinther's Study of 'Fishes,' pp. 176-182) would seem to havedone, that in coloration there is great variation. It would be amatter for regret if, when the views of others are advancing, thedescriber and systematist of Echinoderms should make a backward* Liitken, "Le systeme general de coloration constitue un caractere importantqu'il ne faut pas negliger dans la distinction des Ophiothrix" (Vid. SelsfcSkr. (5) Bd. 8, ii. p. 104) ; and compare the descriptions of all writers on thegenus.