324 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



zibar differing only in some minor details from the Brazilian ones. He remarked that 

 he could find no specimens in the collection with the characters of Antedon diibenii 

 Bohlsche described as being from Rio de Janeiro. 



In a list of the Brazilian echinoderms, with notes on their distribution and other 

 features, published in June 1879, Dr. Richard Rathbun wrote that the Peabody 

 Museum at Yale University, New Haven, Conn., possesses several specimens of an 

 Antedon from Zanzibar which, although he found them undetermined, agree so closely 

 with the original descriptions of A. carinatus as to leave little doubt of their identity. 

 He found that the Brazilian specimens that he had been able to study differ from the 

 Zanzibar specimens about as follows: The Brazilian specimen from Rio de Janeiro 

 in the Peabody Museum, which had been received from Dr. C. F. Liitken labeled 

 Antedon brasiliensis, has the dorsal side of the arms rather more strongly carinate, 

 the tubercle projecting from the median outer edge of each brachial being usually very 

 strongly marked, and often reaching inward one-half to two-thirds the length of the 

 brachial as a very prominent, slightly elongate, subangular ridge with a minutely 

 spinose surface. The intersyzygial interval is two or three muscular articulations. 

 In the characters of the cirri and of the centrodorsal there are no appreciable differ- 

 ences. The specimens from Bahia and Pernambuco, on the contrary, differ mostly 

 with regard to the centrodorsal and the cirri. The former is usually proportionately 

 broader and flatter, but it is extremely variable. The cirri are, as a rule, proportion- 

 ately longer and fewer in number. They are placed in about two irregular rows, or 

 in one crowded row, and range in number from about XV to XXX, on medium sized 

 specimens. They are composed of 19-22 segments each. The total spread of the 

 largest perfect specimen observed was a little over 250 mm. (giving an arm length of 

 125 mm.). The color varies from a light yellowish brown to a deep violet, with many 

 intermediate shades, specimens being usually banded with lighter and darker colors, 

 and seldom of uniform tint. Rathbun said that the study of a large series of specimens 

 would probably serve to unite the Brazilian with the East African species beyond all 

 doubt. 



In his preliminary report upon the comatulids of the Challenger expedition pub- 

 lished in 1879 Dr. P. H. Carpenter listed Antedon brasiliensis as one of the seven 

 species of that collection which he had not been able to identify with any degree of 

 certainty with previously described forms. 



In his monograph on the genus Actinometra published in December 1879, Carpen- 

 ter said that Leach's Alecto carinata seems to have been the same as de Fre"minville's 

 Antedon gorgonia, and he also placed Antedon gorgonia under Comatula carinata 

 Lamarck as a questionable synonym. He listed Antedon carinata as one of the 16 

 species described by Muller that he was able to refer to the genus Antedon as redefined 

 by him. In 1880 Carpenter mentioned Antedon brasiliensis as an example of a species 

 in which the centrodorsal is a thick disk, almost thick enough to be called columnar, 

 with well-marked upright sides to which the cirrus sockets are limited, the whole (or 

 nearly the whole) of the dorsal surface being free of them. He also described the ra- 

 dials of A. brasiliensis, which he regarded as similar to those of Ptilometra macronema, 

 and mentioned the muscle plates on the articular faces. He compared the radials 

 of A. brasiliensis with those of a new fossil species, Antedon prisca. 



In a preliminary report upon the comatulids of the Blake expedition published in 



