644 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Some of the specimens from Mer in the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology show the following characters: 



The arms are 21 in number, 105 mm. long. Three of the IIBr series are 2. 



There are 21 arms about 100 mm. long. Two of the IIBr series are 2, the 

 remaining division series being 4 (3+4). 



There are 21 arms about 80 mm. long. Seven of the IIBr series are 2. 



There are 22 arms 90 mm. long. All of the IIBr series are 4 (3 + 4) and both 

 of the IIIBr series are 2. 



There are 20 arms. One of the IIBr series is 2, the others being 4 (3 + 4). 



The specimen from Warrior Reef has 20 arms. 



Of the 2 specimens in the British Museum from Challenger station 186, one has 

 30 arms and the other is small, with 16 arms. 



The larger specimen collected by the Alert at Port Molle has 15 arms. There 

 are 5 IIBr 4 (3 + 4) series. The cirri are IX, 11-12. The interradial plating is just 

 beginning to develop. This is the specimen which was recorded by Bell under the 

 name of Actinometra cumingii. 



The 2 specimens from Port Molle in the Australian Museum have 15 and 17 arms. 



Hartlaub wrote that of the 2 specimens from Moreton Bay which he found in 

 the Hamburg Museum bearing Liitken's manuscript name Actinometra mutabilis, one 

 has 6 of the IIBr series 2, while in the other all of the IIBr series are 2. Both have 

 19 arms and a very small centrodorsal. 



I examined 3 specimens from Moreton Bay in the Hamburg Museum. Two of 

 them have 19 arms and the third 27. All of the postradial series but 2 are regenerat- 

 ing at the synarthry between the elements of the IIBr series. One of the unregener- 

 ated postradial series (the right posterior) has the IBr series 6 (5 + 6), this bearing 2 

 IIBr 4 (3 + 4) series. 



In the Paris Museum in 1910 I examined 3 small specimens which had been 

 collected by MM. Pe"ron and Lesueur in the Australian seas ("Mers australes") 

 in 1803. 



Carpenter examined these specimens, which he found bearing the manuscript 

 name of Comatula simplex, and in 1879 considered them to be the types of Miiller's 

 Alecto partricirra. 



But Miiller's type was without locality, and the size he gives is greater than that 

 of any of these specimens. 



Later (1881) Carpenter said that these may possibly be Miiller's types, the 

 chief difficulty in the way of this identification being the fact that in none of them 

 do the postradial series divide more than twice, the number of arms being less than 

 20, while in parvicirra, according to Miiller, there are 27 arms. 



In 1888 Carpenter decided that he was mistaken in considering these as the 

 types of parvicirra, and said that, although on 2 occasions he had searched carefully 

 through the large comatulid collection in the Paris Museum, he had been unable to 

 identify the types of Miiller's species. 



He wrote (1879) that these specimens all have an excentric mouth and a terminal 

 comb on the oral pinnules, and gave the arm length as 50 mm. 



