Boone, Echinodermata, Cruises of "Ara" and "Alva" 121 



Family: COMASTERIDAE* 



Subfamily: Comasterinae 



Genus: COMANTHUS A. H. Clark 



Subgenus: Cenolia A.H.Clark 



Comanthus (Cenolia) samoana A. H. Clark 



/ 



Plates 38 and 39 



Type : The type and cotypes of this species were collected by 

 Sir Charles N. E. Eliot in Samoa; the type is deposited in the 

 United States National Museum. 



Distribution : The geographical range of this species is from 

 Ceylon to tropical Australia, south to Abrolhos Islands, west 

 Australia and Torres Straits, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, the 

 Fiji Islands, Tonga Islands, Gilbert Islands, Samoa, Caroline 

 Islands, Pelew Islands, and Philippine Archipelago. Dr. A. H. 

 Clark mentions that it is apparently scarcer in the Malay Archi- 

 pelago. 



Material examined : One exceptionally fine specimen collected 

 in 33 fathoms, on coral bottom, 3.2 miles S.S.E. of Pulo Telaga 

 Island, Anambas Islands, South China Sea, February 6, 1929, by 

 the "Ara." 



The bathymetrical occurrence, given by Dr. A. H. Clark as 

 "low tide down to 40 meters," is considerably extended by the 

 *'Ara" specimen, which comes from 33 fathoms, or 68.75 meters 

 depth. 



Discussion : The specimen has twenty arms, which present 

 an average length of 80 millimeters. The brachials and pinnules 

 are extremely spinose on the distal margins of the brachials and 

 pinnule segments, slightly more so than those figured by A. H. 

 Clark (p. 257, figs. 428-429, vol. I, pt. II, 1915). The discoidal 

 centrodorsal is small, about 3.3 millimeters diameter, with the 

 bare polar area slightly concave. Combs occur at intervals to the 

 tips of the arms. These combs have the pattern characteristic of 

 this species, as figured by A. H. Clark, loc. cit., p. 327, figs. 649- 



•This and t>ie following species, Amphimetra ensifera (A. H. Clark), collected by the "Ara' 

 World Cruise, were added after the "Alva" Crinoidea had been printed, which explains the dis- 

 rupted systematic arrangement. 



