628 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In October, 1882, Professor Bell described Actinometra annulata from a specimen 

 from Cape York in the British Museum. His description was accompanied by an 

 excellent and readily recognizable figure. 



In 1883 Carpenter gave a specific formula for his Actinometra meyeri, and an 

 emended specific formula for Bell's Actinometra annulata. 



In 1884 Prof. Ludwig von Graff described some myzostomes which he had found 

 on one of the specimens from the Tonga Islands which had been distributed by the 

 Godeffroy Museum under Liitken's manuscript name Actinometra intricata. 



Carpenter had now definitely decided that his Actinometra polymorpha is identical 

 with Muller's Alecto parvicirra, and in the Challenger report on the stalked crinoids 

 published in 1884 he used the name parvicirra only. He gave the number of arms in 

 parvicirra as from 13 to 39 (p. 283), whereby it is evident that he included all of the 

 specimens which in 1879 he had described under the 4 varieties of polymorpha. 

 But all of the other references to parvicirra appear to cover only parvicirra as herein 

 understood. 



In the Challenger report on the comatulids published in 1888, Carpenter described 

 as a new species Actinometra valida. He remarked that the only specimen secured 

 was a fine individual which is allied to Liitken's manuscript species Actinometra 

 trachygaster and Actinometra intricata from Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. He noted that 

 it is much larger than rotalaria, having an additional axillary and also larger and more 

 numerous cirri, while the division series are broad and generally in close lateral 

 contact, the sides of their proximal segments being somewhat flattened. 



In this connection it should be remembered that Carpenter's interpretation of 

 Lamarck's Comatula rotalaria was based upon a specimen labeled Comatula brevicirra 

 Troschel, which has been collected by P6ron and Lesueur in 1803 and which he exam- 

 ined in the Paris Museum in 1876. This he took to be Lamarck's type. It is in 

 reality, however, an example of Comanthus parvi-cirra. Carpenter, unfortunately, 

 overlooked the 2 specimens upon which Lamarck's and Muller's descriptions of 

 rotalaria were based. 



Carpenter described valida as having the IIBr series 2 (see under Notes, p. 613) 

 and made it the type of a special group of species of Actinometra which he called the 

 Valida group, characterized by having the IIBr series 2 and the first arm syzygy 

 between brachials 3 + 4. 



Another specimen from Banda he described under the name of Actinometra 

 littoralis, placing it in the Parvicirra group, which was characterized by having the 

 IIBr series 4 (3 + 4), a pinnule on the second brachial, and a syzygy between bra- 

 chials 3 + 4. 



Other specimens of this species he included under Actinometra parvicirra, which, 

 according to his description, has the arms from 13 to 44 in number. In the synonymy 

 of parvicirra he included Actinometra (Comatula) armata, Actinometra polymorpha, 

 Actinometra meyeri, and Actinometra annulata, names which refer wholly or in part 

 to the present species. 



Dr. Clemens Hartlaub in 1891 followed Carpenter in uniting this species with 

 parvicirra, under which name, like Carpenter, he also included samoana. This last, 

 however, he differentiated as Typus A, while parvicirra and timorensis he grouped 



