COMASTERIDAE 199 



This species may readily be distinguished from Notocrinus virilis by its cirri. They 

 are shorter, of about half as many segments, and the segments are not of uniform length 

 as in A'^. virilis. 



Family COMASTERIDAE 



Comanthus novaezealandiae A. H. Clark 



Genus Comanthus A. H. Clark 



Comanthus novaezealandiae Clark, 1918, p. 42; Mortensen, 1925 a, pp. 387-8, figs. 64-5; Clark, 

 1931, p. 588. 



St. 934. 17. viii. 32. Off Three Kings, North Island, New Zealand. 34° 12' S, 172° 11' E. 

 92-98 m. Gear OTL. Bottom: hard, comminuted shells and bryozoans. One young specimen and 

 fragments of an older specimen. 



St. 935. 17. viii. 32. Off Three Kings, North Island, New Zealand. 34° 11' S, 172° 8' E. 84 m. 

 Gear DRL. Bottom: hard. Two large specimens. 



The young specimen has only 12 arms; one of the larger has 16, the other 17, arms. 

 The longest remaining arm, which is incomplete, of the largest specimen is of 116 

 brachials and nearly 100 mm. long. 



The cirrus sockets are irregularly arranged, here in a single, there in a double, row 

 around the edge of the centrodorsal. There are 38 and 34 in the larger specimens, 18 in 

 the young specimen. The cirri are of 16-18 segments in the larger specimens. The 

 seventh segment is a transition segment with its distal quarter a dirty white like the 

 succeeding segments, the remainder a darker colour like the segments proximal to it. 

 The segments beyond the seventh are less rounded and conspicuously wider laterally 

 than the others ; the dorsal spine develops rapidly beyond the seventh segment. 



Mortensen has figured the oral and genital pinnules. Pj is of 34-38 segments and 

 about 8 mm. long; Pj is similar and nearly as long. The terminal comb of the oral 

 pinnules is double, for the inner ventral edges of the last 10-12 segments carry blades 

 similar to but slightly smaller than those on the outer ventral edges. 



Pg , of about 15 segments, is much shorter than the oral pinnules — 4-5 mm. long. The 

 outer genital pinnules are of 18 segments and about 7 mm. long. The distal pinnules are 

 of longer segments, 20-25 i" number, and are as long as the orals. The distal dorsal edges 

 of the third to the fourth or fifth segments of the genital and outer pinnules are raised 

 into strong thorny protuberances. The remaining segments are smooth except for a 

 varying number of the distal segments, a smaller number in the outer than the genital 

 pinnules, which are raised dorsally into spines which may be high and recurved. 



The distal edges of the brachials are raised and produced into fine spines. The 

 syzygial pairs are usually separated by three brachials. 



PENTACRINOID LARVAE 



There are thirty-eight pentacrinoids belonging to three species, Promachocrinus 

 kerguelensis, Isometra hordea and Notocrinus virilis, in the collection. There are only 

 three of Promachocrinus kerguelensis, but good series, fifteen and twenty respectively, of 



