610 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The Challenger specimen from Banda recorded (as parvicirra) by Carpenter has 

 about 40 arms. The centrodorsal is small, entirely without cirri, and is sunken to 

 the level of the dorsal surface of the radial pentagon. 



The Challenger specimen from Banda in 31 meters was described by Carpenter 

 as a new species under the name of Actinometra littoralis. He indicated the characters 

 as follows: 



The centrodorsal is a very thin pentagonal disk with the sides slightly concave. 

 Its dorsal surface lies rather above that of the radial pentagon, from which it is 

 separated by faint subradial clefts. 



The cirri are all lost. 



The radials are visible. The IBr t are almost completely united laterally, but 

 the IBr 2 (axillaries) are free. The rays may divide four times. The IIBr and IIIBr 

 series are 4 (3+4). The IVBr series, when present, are 2. 



The 38 arms average 100 mm. in length. The anterior arms consist of 150 and 

 the posterior of 100 brachials which are triangular at the base, grad\ially becoming 

 more quadrate and slightly elongated toward the end. All of the arms are grooved. 



Syzygies occur between brachials 3 +4 and 11 + 12 or 12 + 13, and distally at 

 intervals of 4 or 5 muscular articulations. 



P D reaches 12.5 mm. in length, and the pinnule on the IIIBr series is nearly as 

 long, but PI is much shorter. The next pair of pinnules are the smallest, their suc- 

 cessors increasing again. The terminal pinnules are much longer and more slender in 

 the anterior than in the posterior arms. The lowest segments of the proximal pin- 

 nules are rather wide and overlap slightly, being provided with spinose margins. 

 The proximal pinnules have a well-defined comb which disappears by the fourth or 

 fifth brachial. 



The disk is 20 mm. in diameter and is naked. The mouth is interradial. 



The color in alcohol is deep blackish brown. 



Carpenter remarked that as only one specimen of this species (littoralis') was 

 obtained he was unable to state its characters as definitely as he could wish. In the 

 normal arrangement of the arm divisions the IIBr series and the IIIBr series are 

 4 (3+4), just as in parvicirra, but sometimes the IIIBr series are 2, and in one case 

 this arrangement is followed by a IVBr 2 series. He believed that littoralis differs 

 from parvicirra in the more complete reduction of the centrodorsal. This is not quite 

 lowered to the level of the radial pentagon, from which it is separated by commencing 

 subradial clefts, a condition not reached by any specimen that he had seen which in 

 other respects presented the general characters of parvicirra. A minor point of distinc- 

 tion between the two is, according to Carpenter, afforded by the overlap and the very 

 spiny margins of the lower pinnule segments in littoralis, while the terminal comb 

 disappears earlier than is usually the case in parvicirra, though it is well developed 

 on the proximal pinnules. 



His figure shows a typical specimen of timorensis with 38 arms and a reduced pen- 

 tagonal centrodorsal with fairly well developed subradial clefts Of the 10 IIBr 

 series, 9 are 4 (3+4) and 1 is 2. Of the 17 IIIBr series, 12 are 4 (3 + 4) and 5 are 2. 



I examined his specimen at the British Museum and found it to resemble one 

 from Torres Strait in the United States National Museum. 



