588 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



ervation Inlet very irregularly, and once there one never knows how long one might 

 be compelled to stay, as there is no road across the forest-clad mountains. 



History. This species was described from 3 specimens collected by Mr. Percy 

 Seymour from a rowboat and sent to me by Prof. William B. Benham, of the Univer- 

 sity of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1916. It was originally designated as a 

 subspecies of Comanthus trichoptera, but in both the references to it published in 

 1918 it was given as a full species. 



COMANTHUS NOVAEZEALANDIAE A. H. Clark 



Comanthus novaezealandiae A. H. CLARK, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 31, 1918, p. 41 (listed 

 from New Zealand); p. 42 (detailed description; Three Kings I., N. Z., 65 fathoms) 



Diagnostic features. This species differs from C. tasmaniae, to which it appears 

 to be most closely related, in having fewer (20) arms, in the lesser length of the 

 elongated earlier cirrus segments, and in the swollen distal borders of the earlier 

 cirrus segments, the distal border of the first 7 cirrus segments in C. tasmaniae being 

 quite unmodified. 



It is easily distinguished from C. benhami by the fewer arms, the much shorter 

 cirri, and the fewer cirrus segments. 



Description. The centrodorsal is discoidal, irregularly circular in outline, 

 broad, flat, and very thin, 5 mm. in diameter. The cirrus sockets are arranged in a 

 single irregular and unequally developed marginal row. 



The cirri are XIII + , 17, rather slender, from 10 to 11 mm. in length. The 

 first segment is very short, the second is twice as broad as long, the third is from 

 one-quarter to one-third again as broad as long, the fourth is about half again as 

 long as broad, the fifth is about twice as long as broad, and the sixth is nearly as 

 long. The following segments rapidly decrease in length, so that the last 7 are 

 broader than long; these are somewhat compressed laterally, and therefore broader 

 in lateral view than the preceding. From the fourth onward the distal dorsal border 

 of the segments is thickened, this thickening becoming gradually narrower and more 

 prominent in the central portion, so that on the last 2 or 3 before the penultimate 

 it resolves itself into a low sharp subterminal tubercle. The opposing spine has a 

 transversely broadened chisel-like edge. 



There are 20 arms in the specimen described, ah 1 of which are broken off at 

 the base. The distal edges of the elements of the division series and of the brachials 

 are very slightly prominent and are bordered with very fine spines. 



Locality. Three Kings Island, New Zealand; 119 meters; hard bottom; Dr. Th. 

 Mortensen, January 5, 1915 [A. H. Clark, 1918] (1). 



History. As yet this interesting species is known only from the type specimen 

 dredged by Dr. Th. Mortensen in 1915 and described in 1918. 



COMANTHUS WAHLBERCII (J. MUller) 



Plate 65, Figure 183 



[See also vol. 1, pt. 1, fig. 161 (dorsal view), p. 223; pt. 2, fig. 700 (disk), p. 341] 

 Alecto wahlbergii J. MULLER, Archiv f. Naturgesch., 1843, vol. 1, p. 131 (description; Port Natal). 

 A. H. CLARK, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 40, 1911, p. 2 (history; a valid species); Memoirs 

 Australian Mus., vol. 4, pt. 15, 1911, p. 760 (distinct from parvicirra) ; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 vol. 43, 1912, p. 383 (identity). 



