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

;162 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA.Syzygies 3 : 10 : 19, or 3 : 11 : 21, or 3 : 13 : 21, or 3 : 14 : 21, or3 : 15 : 22 ; then from. 6-10 joints between each.First pinnules very short ; tliird and fourth the stoutest andlongest, quite stiff, with well-developed broad lower joints, each ofwhich has a marked protuberance on either side ; the succeedingones shorter, and then again longer.Arms about 85 millim. long, the longest cirri 24 millim. ; diameterof disk 6 millim.Colour : pale flesh, occasionally with a dark band here and there,especially at the syzygies ; sometimes there is a good deal of brown.The cirri are typically banded purple and white.Prince of Wales Channel ; Torres Straits.This species has some resemblance to A. decipiens ; but it may bedistinguished from it by (a) the absence of spines from the joints ofthe cirri, (/3) the broader lower pinnules, and (y) the greater lengthof the more distal pinnules.13. Antedon elegans. (Plate XIII. fig. B, a.)Centrodorsal small and flattened ; cirri marginal, in two rows,25-30, with 40 joints, the fifth to tenth rather longer than broadthe succeeding ones with a short conical spine, which diminishes inthe more distal ones, but enlarges again somewhat as a penultimatespine.First radials just visible ; second wide, barely in contact ; thethird comparatively short. Thirty arms. The three distichalspretty long ; the axillary a syzygy. If the arms divide again thereare generally two joints, when the axillary is not a syzygy ; butthere may be three joints, and then the axillary is a syzyg)'.The earlier brachials have even sides ; they then become wedgeshaped,but do not overlap. StiU. further out, they become shorterand project a little at the sides ; towards the free end of the armthe upper face of each joint is sharply convex.Syzygies 3 : 11 : 22 ; then 9-13 joints between each.The first two pinnules are stift' and long, longer and stouter thanthe third and fourth ; none of the following are long, but the rathermore distal are the longer.The disk is deeply incised, and the margins of the rays providedwith a well-developed and characteristic calcareous plating.Arms delicate, 95 millim. long, cirri 30 millim. ; disk (owing tothe incisions) only 8 millim. in diameter.Arms pinkish flesh-colour above, much darker below ; the cirriringed purplish and white. In a younger specimen there arepurplish spots on the arms* above.Port MoUe.A disk from Thursday Island probably belongs to this species.