INTRODUCTION. IX 



13. The discovery of the most ornate comatulid known [Strotometra ornatissimus) which 

 exhibits an exaggerated eversion of the distal edges of the brachials finding a parallel only in 

 the pentacrinite genus Comastrocrinus. 



ZOÖGEOGRAPHICAL RELATIONSHIPS OF THE NEW SPECIES. 



Most of the new species in the "Siboga" collection are more or less closely related to 

 previously known Indo-Malayan types, and offer nothing of especial zoögeographic interest; but 

 nine of them — a number too large to be ignored — from the Lesser Sunda Islands from 

 Sumbawa eastward, and from the Moluccas, are related not to other species from the Indo- 

 Malayan region, but to species from southern Japan, a region possessing a well marked and 

 distinctive fauna. In addition to these there are two others previously known which show the 

 same zoögeographical relationships. These eleven species are : 



Sumbawa-Moluccas species. Japanese representative. 



Comaiulidcs australis . . • C. decameros 



Comantheria weberi ) _ . , ,. 



L. intcr media 



Comantheria rotula \ 



Eudiocrinus pinnahis E. variegatus. 



Cyllometra gracilis C. albopurpurea 



Tropiomctra afra (Hartlaub) T. macrodiscus 



Crossometra Jiclius C. septentrionalis 



Perissometra timorensis P. lata 



Strotometra parvipinna (P. H. Carpenter) . . . S. hepburniana 



Compsomctra iris . . . . ' C. serrata 



Nanometra elymenc A 7 . bowersi 



One species from the same region is most closely related to another from Oceania: 



Lesser Sunda Island species. Oceanic representative. 



Oceauomctra magna O. gigantea 



Another is closely related to a species from Oceania and another from southern China : 



Moluccan species. Oceanic and Chinese representatives. 



\ E. taliitiensis 



Enantcdon molitccana 



( h. smensis 



One well known species from the Lesser Sunda Islands and northern Australia {Stephano- 

 metra indicd) occurs otherwise at Ceylon and among the islands in the southwestern Indian 

 Ocean, having been first described from Rodriguez. 



The very complete collections made by the "Siboga" at the Aru Islands have conclusively 

 demonstrated that the crinoid fauna of those islancl is purely and typically Australian, differing 

 widely from that of the islands to the west and northwest. 



