320 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Subgenus COMATULA Lamarck 



Comatula A. H. CLARK, Unstalked Crinoids of the Siboga Exped., 1918, p. 24 (characters); p. 26 



(key to the included species). 

 Comatula. (Comatula) A. H. CLARK, Unstalked Crinoids of the Siboga Exped., 1918, p. 27. 



Diagnosis. A subgenus of Comatula including species in which the arms are 

 never more than 17, and seldom more than 10, in number, and cirri are usually, though 

 not always present. When there are more than 10 arms the 2 arms on each IIBr 

 series are always of the same size, so that arm reduplication presumably is by the 

 usual process of adolescent autonomy. 



Geographical range.- From Ceylon and the Gulf of Martaban to Australia, south 

 to between Fremantle and Geraldton, Western Australia, and Sandon Bluffs, New 

 South Wales, northward to Luzon, the China Sea, and Hong Kong, eastward possibly 

 to the Society Islands. 



Bathymetrical range. From the shore line down to 109 meters. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES IN THE SUBGENOS COMATDLA 



a 1 . No cirri, the centrodorsal being reduced to a pentagonal or stellate plate lying within the radial 



circlet. 

 b 1 . Anterior arms more than 100 mm. in length (Port Molle, Queensland, to Sandon Bluffs, New 



South Wales; 22-64 [?73] meters) cratera, p. 320. 



b 1 . Anterior arms not more than 65 mm. in length (Gulf of Martaban and the Andaman Islands 



to Lombok; 22-109 meters) micraster, p. 373. 



a 2 . Cirri present. 



b 1 . Cirrus segments 16-25 (usually about 20) in number (Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia, 

 and Port Curtis, Queensland, northward to Singapore and Hong Kong, eastward possibly 



to the Society Islands; 0-21.9 meters) Solaris, p. 323 



b'. Not more than 16 cirrus segments. 



c 1 . Cirri distributed, regularly or irregularly, all around the periphery of the centrodorsal, 

 without segregation in the interradial angles (Abrolhos Islands, Western Australia, and 

 Port Curtis, Queensland, to Luzon and the China Sea, and westward to Ceylon; 0-73 



meters) pectinata, p. 339. 



c 5 . Cirri segregated in the interradial angles of the centrodorsal, where they occur singly or 



in pairs. 



d l . Longest cirrus segments not much, if at all, longer than broad (from between Fremantle 

 and Geraldton, Western Australia, and Port Molle, Queensland, northward to Singa- 

 pore, the China Sea, and the Philippines; 0-93 meters) purpurea, p. 360. 



d 3 . Longest cirrus segments twice as long as broad (Java Sea to Madoera; 82-88 meters) 

 tenuicirra, p. 372. 



COMATULA CRATERA H. L. Clark 



Actinomelra strata (part) BELL, Report Zool. Coll. H. M. S. Alert, 1884, p. 167 (Port MoUe). 

 Actinometra Solaris (part) P. H. CARPENTER, Challenger Reports, Zoology, vol. 26, pt. 60, 1888, 



p. 288 (Port Molle). 

 Comatula Solaris (part) A. H. CLARK, Memoirs Australian Mus., vol. 4, pt. 15, 1911, p. 743 (Port 



Molle); p. 744 (specimen from Port Molle with no cirri); Smiths. Miscell. Coll., vol. 61, No. 



15, 1913, p. 8 (No. 8; Port Molle, 12 fathoms; Alert). 



Comatula cratera H. L. CLARK, Biol. Results Fishing Exper. F. I. S. Endeavour, 1909-1914, vol. 4, 

 pt. 1, 1916, p. 4 (exclusively confined to the east Australian subregion); p. 12 (detailed 

 description; 8 miles east of Sandon Bluffs, 35-40 fathoms); pi. 2, fig. 1. 

 Comatula Solaris var. Solaris A. H. CLARK, Unstalked Crinoids of the Siboga Exped., 1918, p. 26 



(in key; falls in c 1 ). 



