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

132 C0LLECTI0X8 FROM MELANESIA,27. Luidia, sp.A single dried specimen of a species of this genus was taken atPort Dar\vin. Though it is not in a condition to be described, it isright to direct attention to it, as no species of Luidia is mentionedeither by Prof. Perrier or by Mr. Tenison-Woods in their lists ofStarfishes of the Australian seas. The example in question wasgreatly injured during life, and the arms, of which there are onlyfive, differ considerably in form and length. It cannot be regardedas belonging to Gray's species L. hardwiclcii on account of thegreater stoutness of the ventral plates and of the spines found onthem ; the tufts on the paxillee are likewise made up of stouterspinules, and the characters of the adambulacral spines will, it isalmost certain, be found to be very different when a more satisfactoryspecimen is obtained.28. Astropecten coppingeri.Dr. Coppinger has forwarded examples of a species already representedin the Museum, but of which I have never been able to find adescription. The species, however, is not, I should imagine, a rareone, and it is certainly one that has not yet be-en recorded as fromthe Australian seas.It is distinguished by the fact that it has only four spines on eachseries of supero-marginal plates, and these are confined to the twoplates on either side of the apex of the interradial angle.Iiz=30"5, r=8. Breadth of arm at base 7*5 millim. Armstaper gradually and regularly ; about twenty-five supero-marginalplates, which are higher than broad and very high in the angle ofthe arm, where they are narrower at their ventral ends ; the platesthat do not bear spines are regularly covered with a somewhatcoarse granulation, which may almost become spinous ; the twoterminal plates are large, prominent, and smooth ; the space betweenthe arras and on the disk is regularly filled with not largepaxilla3, provided generally with a central tubercle and a circlet offrom eight to ten tubercles around their head. The spines of theinfero-marginal plates are prominent and lie on the sides of thearms, so that they are visible from the abactinal surface. Internallyto these long stoutish spines, three smaller ones are to be foundon the actinal surface in the same transverse line ; the intermediatespace is filled up by a coarse granulation or by spinous processes.The spines bordering the ambulacral groove are closely packed ; thereare three or, more rarely, two on the side of each plate ; these areelongated and rather delicate ; beyond this internal row there is arow of stouter shorter spines, and beyond these are others whichbecome more or less confounded with the covering of the ventralplates.Madreporic plate not detected. The characters of the paxillsealready described do not hold for the region of the disk, where