A MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDS 357 



In 1767 Linne" added to the synonymy of Asterias pectinata Seba's Stella 

 marina polyactis, sen Luna marina (with 29 arms), and his Luna Marina altera (with 

 37 arms). The former, from Mexico, is Nemaster grandis, but the latter, without 

 locality, is unidentifiable. 



In 1783 and again in 1805 A. J. Retzius published a careful redescription of the 

 Linnean type. It was later studied by Johannes Miiller, who published another 

 redescription of it in 1843. 



In his monograph of the recent comatulids published in 1849 Miiller included 

 Asterias pectinata, with a query, in the synonymy of Comatula (Actinometra) Solaris 

 and remarked that it seemed to be merely a color variety of the latter. He noted 

 that, while the coloration of pectinata is very characteristic, its structural features 

 are the same as those of Solaris. 



In the same memoir Miiller described as a new species Comatula cumingii from 

 Malacca. 



Dujardin and Hupdin 1SG2 republished Miiller's description of the Linnean type 

 of pectinata, calling the species Actinometra pectinata. They stated that Miiller had 

 seen this species in the museum at Lund, where it had previously been described by 

 Retzius. They remarked that they had found all the characters mentioned, except 

 for the black dorsal lines and the arrangement of the ventral surface of the disk, in 

 a much altered specimen in the old museum at Rennes which had come from the 

 collection of President de Robien. The color of this specimen seemed to have been 

 purple. The total expanse must have been about 234 mm. They added that in 

 this case especially the characters furnished by the syzygies seem inconstant. From 

 this last remark and from the fact that the Stella (Decameros) barbata of Linck is 

 included in the synonymy of pectinata, and it is elsewhere mentioned that the two are 

 identical, it seems most probable that the specimen referred to was an example of 

 Antedon mediterranea. Dujardin and Hup6 do not mention Miiller's Comatula 

 cumingii, and indeed appear never to have seen his elaborate memoir which was 

 published in 1849. It is cited only in connection with those species which are therein 

 described from specimens in the Paris Museum, and in no case is a page reference 

 given. Their descriptions are all taken from Miiller's earlier papers, published in 

 1841 and 1843. 



In 1869 J. A. Herklots published a description by Kuhl and van Hasselt of a 

 new species from Cape Bantam, Java, which was called Comatula (Actinometra?) 

 hamata. Herklots said that although this new form approaches Actinometra Solaris 

 and Asterias pectinata, the details of its structure, that the manuscript notes of the 

 travelers (Kuhl and van Hasselt) permitted him to indicate, seem sufficiently pro- 

 nounced to distinguish it from the known species. 



This form has heretofore been considered as a synonym of Comatula Solaris, 

 but the small number of cirrus segments (13-14) show that it really is a synonym of 

 C. pectinata. 



The form from near Bohol, Philippines, mentioned by von Graff in 1877 as a host 

 for myzostomes under the name of Actinometra solans is in reality this species. The 

 identification of the specimens was made by Carpenter. 



