The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. 227 



indicates the lapse of a long time since this deep water fauna 

 entered the South African region. 



Perhaps the conclusion is more sweeping than the facts warrant 

 but the impression left by the study of the South African fauna is 

 that the region south of Delagoa Bay now forms a very distinct 

 zoogeographical region, only superficially connected with the Indo- 

 Pacific region to the north and east, and quite isolated from any 

 other region : that its original echinoderm fauna was common to a 

 large continental area to the northwest in the Atlantic and to the 

 southward ; and that its present day littoral fauna has moved in from 

 the northeast under the influence of the Agulhas current, but res- 

 tricted by the cold winter water from the southeast. 



SEA-LILIES. CRINOIDEA. 



The crinoids form a very insignificant part of the Echinoderm 

 fauna of South Africa. They were listed in 1915 by Mr. Austin 

 Hobart Clark (Deutsche Siid-Polar Exp. : Zoologie, vol. 8, p. 163) 

 who gives three species as occuring along shore in 0-30 fms. and 

 two species as occuring in deep water, 250-450 fms. The col- 

 lection of the South African Museum (45 specimens) contains four 

 of these five species and also four species not known hitherto from 

 the South African region. Of these, one is from comparatively shal- 

 low water (90 fms.) but the other three were taken by the PIETER 

 FAURE only in depths of 900-1000 fms. It is interesting to see 

 therefore that the South African crinoids fall into three groups of 

 three species each, an "abyssal" group of two stalked forms and a 

 five-armed comatulid, a "continental" group of comatulids and a 

 "littoral" group of comatulids. 



Of the abyssal group, one (Monachocrinus coelus) appears to be a 

 new species of a genus previously known from both the Atlantic and 

 Indian Oceans. A second species (Bijtnocrinus chuni) was hitherto known 

 only from the western part of the Indian Ocean near the Somaliland 

 coast in something over 900 fins. The third species (Pentametrocrinus 

 varians) was hitherto known only from the -northeastern Indian 

 Ocean, the vicinity of the Philippine Islands and southern Japan, in 

 361-1050 fms. It is interesting to note that the YALDIVIA took an 

 as-yet-undescribed species of Pentametrocrinus in the same region 

 where Bi/thocrinus chuni was taken, but in slightly shallower water. 

 The PIETER FAURE found the two genera at the same station. 



Of the three continental comatulids, one (Liparometra midticirra) 

 appears to be an uridescribed species of a wide-spread East Indian 



