Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Echinoderms from Southern New Zealand

Persephonaster Alcock, 1891 — Persephonaster neozelanicus Mrtsn., 1925

Persephonaster Alcock, 1891

Persephonaster neozelanicus Mrtsn., 1925

  • Ten miles south of Cape Campbell, 50 fathoms, mud, March, 1947; coll. F. Abernethy; 70 specimens.

There were no meristic variants in the population-sample studied. The largest individual measures: R, 140 mm.; r, 35 mm.; R/r, 4. The number of marginals to the interbrachial semi-arc is 49 in the same specimen. The species thus reaches a larger size than was hitherto supposed. Mortensen (1925), in describing the type material, stated that there was no anus observable in his specimen. In the present material, the anus is usually placed on a prominence in the centre of the page 7 disc—some specimens have the rectal and pyloric portions of the intestine everted through it. Other new points that may be noted are: the sexes are separate; the gonopores open on the aboral inter-radii, near the margin. The colour in life is striking—the paxillar area salmon-pink, the marginals and underside cream.