PART 5 A MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRIXOIDS 285 



The only small antedonids from Barbados which I have ever seen are three speci- 

 mens of Compsometra (now Antedon) nuttingi. These I at first mistook for this species, 

 and so recorded them. I have a suspicion that Carpenter may have done the same 

 thing, and I therefore tentatively regard his records from Dominica, Barbados and 

 Grenada as referring to Antedon nuttingi and not to Coccometra hageni. 



In the narrative of the University of Iowa's Bahama Expedition published in 1895 

 Prof. C. C. Nutting wrote that on the Pourtales Plateau great numbers of crinoids were 

 collected, but the species were comparatively few. That there are portions of the sea 

 bottom covered with as dense a growth of crinoids as any that flourished in paleozoic 

 seas has been proved more than once by recent deep sea explorations. He had ample 

 demonstration of this fact on several occasions, notably when the tangles came up 

 after a haul at a depth of 219 meters. The bearing of this spot, as nearly as could be 

 determined, was Sand Key Light bearing N. by W. % W., 15 miles distant. As the 

 tangle bar neared the surface and the tangles themselves could be seen rising through 

 the blue water, he noticed that a stream of brownish objects was trailing after it, as if 

 innumerable mossy bits were floating away from the hemp strands. When the tangles 

 came on board he found them literally covered with a mass of crinoids, all of one kind 

 and quite small (without any doubt C. hageni). He estimated that at least 500 speci- 

 mens came up in that haul, and it was evident that hundreds or thousands had washed 

 off during the ascent of the tangles from the sea bottom. He says that this was probably 

 the greatest number of individuals of any one species obtained at a single haul during 

 the entire cruise; the bottom must have been actually packed with them in spots. 



In 1902 Dr. H. L. Clark said that "this has been called the commonest crinoid of 

 the West Indies;" undoubtedly he referred to the statement that it is the most 

 widespread. 



Associates. Dr. P. H. Carpenter wrote in 1881 that there are 3 distinct species 

 besides this to which he has seen the name hageni applied. 



The specimens sent to the museums at Edinburgh and Copenhagen under this 

 specific name are varietal forms of Comactinia echinoptera. 



Among the large number of individuals of C. hageni from the Florida Straits which 

 he examined he found a few examples of two entirely different, and at that tune new, 

 species. 



One of these he notes is distinguished by having enormous lancet-like processes 

 on the lower segments of its oral pinnules. This is the form described by Hartlaub in 

 1912 under the name of Actinometra cristata (P. H. Carpenter, MS.), now known as 

 Comatonia cristata. It is frequently associated with C. hageni from which it is easily 

 distinguished by its somewhat larger size and more robust build, as well as lighter color. 



The other has no pinnules at all upon the second and fourth brachials, though 

 those of the following brachials are developed as usual. Carpenter subsequently 

 referred to this as Antedon dejecta; it is now known as Hypalometra defecia. 



Subfamily HELIOMETRINAE 



Heliometrinae A. H. CLARK, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 22, 1909, p. 176 (includes Promncho- 

 crinns, Heliometra, Trichometra, Hathrometra, and Isometra); Mem. Australian Mus., vol. 4, 1911, 

 p. 725 (absent from Australia); Crinoids of the Indian Ocean, 1912, p. 5 (the East Indian Cyclo- 

 metra gave rise to Solanometra and Promachocrinus of the Antarctic; the East Indian Trichometra 

 is represented in the Atlantic by other species of Trichometra and by Hathrometra), p. 6 (number 



