320 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Geographical range. Cargados Carajos, the Seychelles, Farquhar Atoll, Mauri- 

 tius, Madagascar, and Reunion, and the coasts of eastern and southern Africa from 

 Zanzibar to False Bay, Cape of Good Hope; St. Helena; from Santa Catarina Island, 

 southern Brazil (lat. about 28 S.) northward to Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, and 

 St. Lucia, British West Indies. 



Bathymetrical range. From the shore line down to 55 meters in both the Indian 

 and Atlantic Oceans; there is a single record of 508 meters off St. Lucia. 



Occurrence. Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark said that at Tobago he first found this 

 species in Buccoo Bay, where it occurs in water from a few inches to several feet in 

 depth at low tide; indeed, at the lowest tides some individuals are probably out of the 

 water, in part at least, for a short time. 



The bottom which they frequent is made up largely of Forties fragments, usually 

 more or less covered by a growth of Corallina and Halimeda. Scattered over it there 

 is also a sparse growth of short eelgrass (Zostera). 



As a rule the comatulids hold themselves in an erect position by means of their 

 stout cirri, which are customarily grasping a bit of Porites. Sometimes the body is 

 more or less completely shaded by a clump of eelgrass or seaweed, but this is not 

 usually the case. Generally the individuals are solitary, but occasionally five or 

 six may be found about a single clump of Porites or of eelgrass. Now and then he 

 found individuals living beneath slabs and large fragments of coral; this was par- 

 ticularly true on Buccoo reef, where, later, a number of specimens were discovered. 

 All were in shaded places, suspended arms down and not in the usual erect position. 



These comatulids are not really abundant, but twenty or more may be gathered 

 in half an hour or less. 



All the other recorded captures are from hard bottom reefs; rocks; rocks and 

 coral; sand and shells; dark sand; black specks and rocks. 



History. William Elford Leach in 1815 described Alecto carinata from a specimen 

 from an unknown locality hi the British Museum in the following terms: "Rays 

 above, with a carina of spines, the ciliae compressed; tentacules of the back very 

 slightly regulose, the joints simple, and of moderate length." This description could 

 apply only to a species of Tropiometra, as is conclusively shown by the mention of 

 the "carina of spines" that is, a series of high more or less spine-like carinate proc- 

 essesand the compressed "ciliae" or pinnules. Leach's specimen can no longer be 

 found. As he emphasized the carination, which to him suggested a series of spines, 

 his specimen must have represented one of the more strongly carinate forms and 

 therefore presumably came either from South Africa or the more or less closely adja- 

 cent islands, or from Brazil. 



In March 1816 Lamarck described Comatula carinata from a specimen in the 

 collection of M. Dufresne that had been collected at the He de France (Mauritius) 

 by M. Mathieu. Lamarck's description reads: "C. radiis pinnatis basi bifidis, denis, 

 dorso obsolete carinatis; articulis imbricatis; cirrhis dorsalibus vigesinis." He added 

 in French that this species has 10 pinnated rays and 20 dorsal cirri. Under Comatula 

 carinata he placed de Fre"minville's Antedon gorgonia as a synonym, with a question 

 mark. 



In an article on the digestive organs of the genus Comatula published in November 

 1826, John Edward Gray, after describing the mouth, ambulacral grooves, and anal 



