394 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Blake; no locality label (1, M. C. Z., 222). 



No data (7, M. C. Z., 444, 451). 



Erroneous localities. Kingsmill Islands; 13 fathoms; Bache [Hartlaub, 1912]. 



The Bache was never in the Gilbert (Kingsmill) Islands; but if we may assume 

 that Kingsmill was a slip for Marquesas the following locality is indicated: 



Bache station 35S; north of the Marquesas (lat. 25 03' 00" N., long. 82 13' 00" 

 W.); 22 meters; temperature 19.44 C.; February 17, 1872. Dr. William Stimpson 

 was the naturalist of the Bache on this cruise, and it is quite natural to suppose that 

 specimens collected by him are of Pacific origin. 



Hong Kong [Hartlaub, 1912] (fragment, M. C. Z., 445). 



This specimen was probably one of Stimpson 's from the Florida keys collected 

 while he was naturalist of the Bache. 



Geographical range. From Cape Lookout, N. C., southward to Rio de Janeiro, 



Brazil. 



Bathymetrical range. From the shore line down to 508 (?510) meters. The 

 average of 87 records is 193 meters. 



Thermal range. From 8.22 to 26.17 C. The average of 26 records is 17.78 C. 



Remarks. This species was first mentioned in 1840 as Comatula echinoptera 

 by Prof. Johannes Mtiller, but only the distal intersyzygial interval was given. 

 In the following year he described it in detail under the name of Alecto echinoptera, 

 his type being a specimen in the Berlin Museum without locality data which had 

 been deposited by Captain Wendt. He published a redescription of it in 1849 under 

 the name of Comatula (Alecto) echinoptera. 



In 1857 Prof. J. Victor Carus illustrated the spicules in the disk, bis figure being 

 republished by Bronn in 1860. 



During his residence at Charleston, S. C., Prof. Louis Agassiz found a small 

 comatulid to be quite abundant in that vicinity. His son, Mr. Alexander Agassiz, 

 referred to it in 1864 under the name of Comatula, sp., and said that it carried its 

 pentacrinoids on its cirri. In the following year Mrs. Elizabeth Cary Agassiz and 

 Mr. Alexander Agassiz in their Seaside Studies briefly described this form, with 

 figures of the adult and the pentacrinoids, as Alecto meridionalis, a manuscript name 

 which had been given to it by Louis Agassiz. 



In 1866 Prof. Addison E. Verrill suggested that this new species was possibly 

 the same as the Alectro dentata which had been described by Thomas Say in 1825 

 from Great Egg Harbor, N. J. 



In 1869 Count L. F. de Pourtales recorded meridionalis from the dredgings of 

 the United States Coast Survey west of Tortugas in 35 fathoms, and off French Reef 

 in 45 fathoms, giving the color in life as purple or yellow, or both mixed. He referred 

 to the original specimens from South Carolina, some of which were in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, and mentioned in connection with this species the name 

 Comatula holmesi, which, however, he did not define. 



In 1878 Pourtales gave this species from Blake stations 32 and 45, and from off 

 Cape Frio, Brazil, where it had been dredged by the Hassler on her voyage from the 

 eastern to the western coast of the United States, and remarked that older and larger 

 specimens look so much more massive than the young that they at first sight appear 



