2S6 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGEE. 



Samboangan; 10 fathoms. Two specimens. 



Other Localities. — Indian seas (Eetzius) ; Australian seas (Peron and Lesueur) ; 

 Singapore ; Java ; the Moluccas ; North Celebes ; Banka ; Billiton ; Bohol ; North-west 

 Australia; the ArafuraSea; Dundas Strait ; Warrior Eeef ; Thursday Island ; Prince of 

 Wales Channel ; Fitzroy Island ; Port Molle ; Port Curtis. 



Remarks. — Midler associated this species with the name of Eetzius, 1 referring only to 

 the latter author's famous dissertation which was published in 1805. The name, how- 

 ever, had been used by Linnaeus in the tenth edition of the Systema Naturae (1758), 

 the first in which species were characterised ; 2 and it was also employed by Eetzius 3 in 

 1783. Linnaeus referred to Asterias pectina ta the two ten-armed Comatulas figured by 

 Linck, 4 which are the British and the Mediterranean varieties of Antedon rosacea, and 

 also the Stella chinensis of Petiver. But except for his mention of the type as belonging 

 to the Indian seas, there is no evidence of his having associated the specific name 

 p&otinata with any particular form from this locality. This, however, was done by Eetzius 

 in 1783 and again in 1805, when he separated Asterias tenella from Asterias pectinata, 

 and his type specimens of both species are still in existence. He added a description in 

 Swedish to the Linnaean diagnosis of Asterias pectinata, and his reference to the number 

 and characters of the cirri indicates that he was not speaking of a European Comatula, 

 but of the specimen from the Indian seas in the Eetzian collection ; while he eventually 

 only included under this name one of Linck's two species, Decacnemos barbata, from 

 the Mediterranean, remaining in doubt as to the position of the British Decacnemos 

 rosacea. 5 



Lamarck made no allusion whatever to Eetzius' two descriptions of Asterias pectinata, 

 although the first one was quoted in Gmelin's edition of the Systema Naturae on the 

 same page (3166) as that to which Lamarck referred in the case of Asterias tenella. 

 De Blainville also left it without notice as an eastern species, though he quoted Adams' 

 use of the name for the British Comatula ; and it remained in obscurity till Midler's visit 

 to Lund in 1841. After examining Eetzius' type specimen, he gave a careful and 

 perfectly recognisable description of it, one of the best, in fact, which he ever wrote. 6 

 He eventually came to the conclusion, however, that it seemed to be a colour variation 

 of Comatula Solaris, Lamarck, 7 and he put Asterias pectinata into the synonymy of this 

 type, but with a (?). I believe myself that the two species really are distinct ; but should 

 it ever become necessary to unite them under one name, that name must be pectinata 

 and not Solaris. Lamarck's description of Comatula Solaris is as insufficient as that of 



1 Archivf. Naturgesch., 1843, Jahrg. ix. Bd. i. p. 133. 2 Op. cit, t. ii. p. 663. 



3 K. Svensk. Vetensk. Akad. Handl., At. 1783, t. iv. p. 241. 4 Op. cit, Tab. xxxvii. figs. 64, 66. 



6 Op. cit, p. 34. 6 Archivf. Naturgesch., 1843, Jahrg. ix. Bd. i. p. 133. 



7 Abhandl. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Berlin, 1847 [1849], p. 249. 



