A MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDS 



511 



Geographical range. Fron Hongkong and the Philippines to the Caroline, Mar- 

 shall, and Hawaiian Islands, Fiji, the Tonga Islands, New Caledonia, the Solomon 

 Islands, and Torres Strait, and westward to Baluchistan. 



Bathymetrical range. Littoral and down to 51 (?433) meters. Of the 95 records 

 no less than 76 are from the shoreline. 



Habits. Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark said that Lamprometra brachypecha was in 

 many respects the most remarkable crinoid met with at Mer, but unfortunately it 

 was rare and only four specimens, differing little in size or color, were found. These 

 were all taken on the under surface of rock fragments on the southeastern reef flat. 

 When the rock was overturned the arms would be more or less closed over the mouth, 

 the whole animal appearing like a tuft of green seaweed. On being touched, how- 

 ever, the arms, instantly and all together, were laid back flat against the rock and 

 the broad white band flashed into view. The immediate effect was obliterative, 

 and one's first thought was that the annual had vanished. Whether this habit is 

 protective, he said, could not be determined from the few observations possible. 

 Much more critical study of the comatulid and its natural enemies is necessary before 

 the truth can be ascertained. 



Dr. Edgar Thurston wrote that he found this species in dense clusters in crevices 

 in coral blocks at Tuticorin, and both in crevices in corals and on gorgonians at 

 Pamban and Tuticorin. 



Parasite. The very small specimen from Snod Island has a minute parasitic 

 Melanella on the ventral side of one of the arms (for an account of the molluscan 

 parasites of crinoids see Part 2, pp. 645-649; Melanella, pp. 648-649). 



The specimen from Madras, station 5, also has a Melanella attached to it, in this 

 case at the base of one of the cirri. 



History. The Caput-Medusae cinereum described and figured by Linck in 1733 

 was in 1758 placed by Linnaeus in the synonymy of his Asterias muhiradiata. Prof. 

 Johannes Miiller in 1841 and 1849 placed it with a query in the synonymy of his new 

 species Alecto palmata. Dr. P. H. Carpenter in 1879 said that it may be determined 

 with tolerable certainty to represent a species of the genus Antedon, as that genus was 

 understood by him. Miiller was probably correct in identifying Caput-Medusae 

 cinereum with his Alecto palmata, although conclusive proof is lacking. 



In 1841 Muller described Alecto palmata from a specimen from India in the 

 Anatomical Museum in Berlin that had been presented by Dr. Daniel Frederic 

 Eschricht, a celebrated Danish physician. 



In 1849 Muller described the species at greater length under the name of Comatula 

 (Alecto) palmata (see page 501), listing in addition to the type specimen others in the 

 Zoological Museum at Berlin from the Red Sea collected by Hemprich and Ehrenberg, 

 and in the Paris Museum from an unknown locality collected by Botta, and also from 

 Sambuangam (Zamboanga) collected by Hombron during the expedition of the 

 Astrolabe. As the type specimen was from India (understood, of course, in a broad 

 sense) the name palmata must be applied to the widely spread and common species 

 now under consideration instead of to the species confined to the Red Sea for which 

 heretofore it has been used. 



Dujardin and Hup6 in 1862 failed to mention palmata, but in their list of manu- 

 script names found with specimens in the Paris Museum they included Comatula 



