MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDS. 25 



comatulids, which is rather fortunate in view of the fact that a subsequently estab- 

 lished Alecto has been widely used as a generic name among the Bryozoa. 



Schweigger attempted to make Alecto horrida a synonym of the Linnean 

 Asterias multiradiata; but we can not attach any importance to this, as it was cus- 

 tomary until a much later date to consider all multibrachiate comatulids as belong- 

 ing to the species "multiradiata," as was done, for instance, by Audouin and Leuck- 

 art, through ignorance of tho real generic and specific, as well as of the family, 

 characters of the animals. 



The comatulids mentioned and described by Lamarck in the year following 

 Leach's description of his three new species of Alecto are: 



Comatula Solaris, sp. nov Contotula Solaris. 



(Capillaster sentosa. 

 Comatula multiradiata | Comanthus bennetti. 



[i "iiinsltr multijida. 



Comatula rotalaria, sp. nov Comatula rotahir'^i 



Comatula jimbriuta, sp. nov Capillaster multiradiata. 



Comatula carinata, sp. nov Tropiometra carinata. 



Comatula mediterranea, sp. nov Antedon mediterranea. 



Comatula adeonx, sp. nov Oligometrides adconse. 



Comatula brachiolata, sp. nov ' <>"'<'/' '/a brachiolata. 



The determination of the type of the genus Comatula is a matter of consider- 

 able importance in crinoid nomenclature; succeeding authors have either accepted 

 it in the sense of Lamarck to cover all comatulids, or have dropped it altogether; 

 the genus has never been properly revised. Now Lamarck's generic diagnosis is 

 quite explicit; it reads, "bouche inferieur, centrale, isolee, membraneuse, tubu- 

 leuse, saillante;" this obviously refers to the anal tube which was mistaken by 

 Lamarck for the mouth, and shows that when it was written he had in mind an 

 exocyclic form, or a member of the family Comasteridse, thus eliminating from 

 consideration the species adeonee, carinata, fimbriata (which has a central or sub- 

 central mouth, though belonging to theComasteridoe), and mediterranea, and leaving 

 solans, brachiolata, rotalaria, and multiradiata, the last having been subsequently 

 eliminated by L. Agassiz, who made it the type of his new genus Comashr in 1836. 

 Rotalaria was designated as the type of Coma nth us in 1907, thus leaving the two 

 species Solaris and brachiolata as possible types of Comatula; of the two Solaris 

 agrees best with the generic description which, moreover, could not by any chance 

 have been based upon brachiolata, as the two specimens of that form known to 

 Lamarck are both very small, and have the arms folded in such a way as to conceal 

 the disk. Thus we find that solans must be taken as the type of the genus ( 'onmtula. 



Lamarck had undoubtedly originated the name Cumatula or, in its French form, 

 "Comatule" long before he published it, and before either Antedon or Alecto were 

 published, and, as priority of publication was not such a vital matter in those days 

 as it is now, he was unwilling to relinquish it in favor of either of the earlier name-, 

 the more so as both of these were ill-defined and covered the ground only in a 

 rudimentary way; his reputation was so great that practically all succeeding autln >r- 

 followed him, only a very few resurrecting Leach's name Alecto, while Antedon was 

 completely buried. 



79140 Bull. 8215 3 



