| OCR Text |
Show 78 PROF. F. J. B1CLL ON T H E [Feb. 19, spines are not developed on all, though they are on most of the ossicles ; and we frequently find, though without any definite regularity, that two, or it may be three, spines are developed. When this happens the spines are so set side by side as to lie across the long axis of the arm ; they are not large, but their free end is always bare of granules. The ossicles extend almost to the centre of the disk. In addition to the lophial spines a number of others, almost if not quite as large as they, are also developed ; a definite row runs down either side of the lophial line, and in the wider portion of the disk two other rows of spine-bearing ossicles are less distinctly developed. The pore-areas are extensive, but not sharply distinguished from one another, and the individual pores are large. The close granulation of the superior ossicles and the intermediate pore-areas is hardly less coarse than that of the lower surface. The madreporite is of moderate size, irregularly elliptical, and about its own long diameter from the centre of the disk. Notwithstanding the statement of Miiller and Troschel, I venture to think that a perfect specimen would present at any rate a few pedicellariae. Colour (when dry) : the distal parts of tbe arms light, the proximal brown, above ; the whole greyish brown below. The specimen here under description is stated to have had the " tops of prickles scarlet-red, upper surface tile-red." It was collected by Mr. Darwin at St. Iago, Cape Verde Islands. Measurements:-R=95; r=42 ; breadth of arm at base 41 millim. OREASTER RETICULATUS. Pentaceros reticulatus, Perrier, Rev. Stell. p. 246, where see the complicated synonymy, and therein make the following corrections and additions.- Insert "1766, Asterias reticulata, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. x. p. 1099." Add "page, p. 14," to " Retzius (1805)." After "(1840) reticulatus," add " aculeatus, p. 277." Add to reference to Grube in Archiv of 1857,-" Nova Acta Ac. L. C. xxvii. (1860), p. 17 ; " and delete the words " et Oreaster gigas." Correct page of reference to Liitken (1859) to "p. 64." For " 1862, Oreaster tuberosus, Belm,"-read " 1859, Oreaster tuberosus, Mobius, Neue Seesterne, p. 6, in Abhandl. Geb. Naturw. (Hamburg), iv. p. 2. The specific name was suggested by Prof. Behnr Complete reference to Agassiz,-" no. 9 (1869), p. 307." The numerous names given to this species will afford some indication of its variability; it will perhaps be most convenient to commence with an account of a large almost perfect (though dried) specimen. R is about equal to 2 r. Disk exceedingly high; arms rapidly tapering from their base, rounded, not carinated, so that the lophial line is very indistinct; spines developed within the apical region. |
