108 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Geographical range. From Ceylon and the Mergui Archipelago to the Maccles- 

 field Bank, the Philippines, the Bonin Islands, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, and northern 

 Australia, south on the east to Surprise shoal (about lat. 18 S.) and on the west 

 to the Abrolhos Islands (Houtman's rocks). ?Coast of China. 



Bathy 'metrical range. From the shore line down to 32 (?73) meters, and un- 

 doubtedly somewhat deeper. The depths at Dr. Sixten Bock's stations represent 

 the length of line out and not the actual depths. 



Occurrence. Dr. H. L. Clark noted that this species is very common at Mer, 

 especially on the southwestern reef flat. 



It has always been found in association with the coral reef fauna, in shallow water 

 on the reefs themselves, and in deeper water on coral, lithothamnion, or coral sand 

 bottoms. 



Remarks. Like the other species of comatulids recorded by Carpenter from 

 Challenger station 174, B, C, or D, the specimens listed from that station were 

 probably taken in shore collecting. 



There is no reason to believe that this species is to be found in the region of 

 Port Jackson, New South Wales. The comatulid fauna of this district, as repeatedly 

 reported, consists only of Comanthus trichoptera, Compsometra loveni, and Ptilometra 

 australis, none of which occur at any place within the range of C. stelligera. 



History. The first known specimen of this species was secured by Mr. J. Beete 

 Jukes, the naturalist of H. M. S. Fly, during the investigations in the northeast 

 Australian region in 1843-1847. 



In the late sixties and early seventies a number of specimens of this species from 

 Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, and Australia were brought to Hamburg by the Godeffroy Co. 

 Here the name Actinometra tenax was bestowed upon them by Prof. C. F. Liitken, 

 and under this name they were distributed to various European museums. 



Professor Liitken intended formally to describe this species, but he never did 

 this, and the only mention he ever made of the name was to list it in one of the cat- 

 alogues of the Godeffroy Museum published in 1874. 



In 1879 Dr. P. H. Carpenter mentioned that Liitken had applied the name 

 Actinometra tenax to a species of which he never had had the opportunity of examining 

 specimens; but later in the same paper he remarked that this species (tenax) is charac- 

 terized, together with a few new Challenger species, by the possession of "two palmars 

 on two distichals" (that is, by having both IIBr and IIIBr series 2), so that he must 

 have seen specimens while the preparation of the article was in progress. 



In 1880 Carpenter figured a comasterid disk with 2 mouths and 2 anal tubes; 

 he refers this merely to "Actinometra, sp." He mentioned, however, that the speci- 

 men came from the Challenger collection, and in the Challenger report we find the 

 same figure republished under the name of Actinometra stelligera. 



In another paper published in the same year dealing with the fossil genus Sola- 

 nocrinus and its relations to recent comatulids Carpenter figured the centrodorsal 

 and radial articular faces of a comasterid from Challenger station 174 to which he 

 refers in the text and in the explanation to the plates as belonging to Actinometra 

 stelligera, n. sp. 



