398 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



teridae); but one of these he divided up into a great number of varieties and 

 subvarieties. 



In his work upon the Caribbean comatulids he followed undeviatingly the 

 lines developed by Carpenter from his study of the East Indian types, in spite of 

 the obvious fact that the interrelationships of the eastern and the western forms 

 are radically different. Like Carpenter, he ignored the cirri and directed his atten- 

 tion almost wholly to the arms. He therefore entirely failed to notice that echi- 

 noptera is much more closely related to Solaris and pectinata of the Indo-Pacific 

 than it is to any of the other West Indian species, while all three show the same 

 bewildering diversity in the length and stoutness of the arms. 



Hartlaub's arrangement of the Caribbean species of Comasteridae, with their 

 present determination, is as follows: 



Actinometra echinoptera: 



1 . var. echinoptera = Comactinia echinoptera. 



No locality. 



2. var. meridionalis = Comactinia echinoptera; but fig. 1, pi. 16, 



is Leptonemaster venustus. 

 Blake stations 155, 156, 177, 

 203, 231, 247, 249, 272, 

 278, 297; French Reef; 

 Cape Frio ; Charlotte Har- 

 bor; Barbados; Blake sta- 

 tion 30, 1880. 



3 . var. valida = Comactinia echinoptera . 



Blake stations 157, 171, 219, 

 241, 277; Barbados, 100 

 fathoms. 



4. var. meridionalis-valida = Comactinia echinoptera. 



Blake stations 157, 246; St. 

 Lucia, 278 fathoms. 



5 . var . carinata = Leptone master venustus. 



Blake stations 127, 155, 177, 

 178, 203, 246, 249, 298; 

 10, 1880. 



6. var. meridionalis-carinata = Comactinia echinoptera; but one of the 



Blake stations 155, 156, 231, specimens from station 156 is Leptone- 



286, 45; west of Tortugas. master venustus. 



7. var. rubiginosa =Nemaster rubiginosa; but fig. 13, pi. 17, 



Blake station 155; Tortugas; is Comactinia echinoptera. 



Orange Key ; the specimen 

 figured in fig. 13, pi. 17, is 

 from Blake station 157. 



8. var. meridionalis-rubiginosa = Nemaster rubiginosa; but fig. 6, pi. 17, 



Bla-ke stations 127, 155; from Montserrat, is Comactinia echi- 



Florida. noptera. 



