292 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Eolis; off Sambo Key, Fla.; 210 meters; Jdhn B. Henderson (1, U.S.N.M., E. 

 548). PI. 6, figs. 17, 18. 



Corwin station IP; 5 miles southsouthwest of Sand Key, Fla.; 164-183 meters; 

 May 17, 1867 [Hartlaub, 1912, as "Com. 101, Stn. " = Corw. Po. 1, Stn. ] 



Pourtales plateau; 366-411 meters (2, M. C. Z., 755). 



Geographical range. From Cape Lookout, N. C., southward to the Florida Keys. 



Bathymetrical range. From 14 to 366 (?411) meters; the average of 10 records 

 is 206 meters. 



Thermal range. There are two records, 18.5 C. and 27.0 C.; the average is 

 19.05 C. 



Remarks. In his preliminary report upon the Blake comatulids published in 1881 

 P. H. Carpenter wrote that among the large number of individuals of Coccometra 

 nagenii from the Florida Straits he found a few examples of two entirely new species 

 of "Antedon." One of these was the form now known as Hypalometra dejecta. The 

 other is distinguished by having enormous lancetlike processes on the lower joints of 

 its oral pinnules. Without question Comatonia cristata is the species to which this 

 refers, for it is very commonly found associated with Coccometra hagenii. Carpenter, 

 who had recently (1879) published an extensive memoir upon the Comasteridae 

 (Ms genus Actinometra) based entirely upon a study of the highly specialized Indo- 

 Pacific types, was not prepared to recognize this anomalous little creature with a 

 central mouth and sacculi as related to them, and he therefore assigned it to the genus 

 Antedon as understood by him. He speaks of the enormous lancetlike processes on 

 the lower segments of the oral pinnules. In some cases nearly all the segments of 

 these pinnules are involved in the comb, which is so extravagantly developed as almost 

 to obscure its real nature. 



When the Blake collection was turned over to him Hartlaub found in it a single 

 specimen of this species without a locality label, and among the accompanying papers 

 several excellent figures. (PI. 10, figs. 1-5.) He gave a detailed description of the 

 single individual, assigning it to the genus Actinometra, but pointing out that it 

 strongly recalls an "Antedon" of the Tenella group. He did not suspect that it was 

 the peculiar Antedon referred to by Carpenter in 1881. 



Among the collections in the United States National Museum I had found several 

 specimens of this species which were readily identified from Hartlaub's description 

 and figures, so that when I established for it the genus Comatonia in 1916 I was able 

 to indicate its range. 



Dr. H. L. Clark in 1918 gave two localities at which it had been taken by the 

 University of Iowa's Bahama expedition in 1893, and was so kind as to allow me to 

 examine the specimens. 



In 1924 Dr. Torsten Gisl6n remarked that this form deviates from all comasterids 

 in having a rounded conical centrodorsal with the cirri hi 3 or 4 rows, strong roimded 

 posterior projections at the synarthrial articulations, and sacculi. He believes it to 

 be a macrophreate form, possibly related to the Heliometrinae. 



But I can not see any good reason for not considering it as a generalized 

 representative of the Capillasteridae. 



