4 " ENDEAVOUR SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



indicates that such a division of the AustraUan marine fauna 

 fails to bring out the interesting contrasts between the east 

 and west coasts, and I would suggest the recognition of three 

 AustraUan subregions as follows : — 



1. East Australian subregion, extending from about 35°S. 

 Lat. to 15°, merging northward in the East Indian or, 

 more properly, Indo-Pacific fauna of the Torres Strait 

 district. Of the more than four hundred Australian 

 Echinoderms now known, about sixty-five, or some 

 16% belong exclusively to this fauna. Some of the 

 characteristic species are the following : — 



Crinoids. 



Comatula cratera. 

 Ptilometra mulleri. 

 Compsometra loveni. 



Asteroids. 



Mediaster monacanthus. 

 Anthenea acuta. 

 Astrogonium duheni. 



Ophiurans. 



Conocladus amhlyconus. 

 Ophiarachnella ramsayi. 

 Ophiura multispina. 



Echini. 



Prionocidaris australis. 

 Centrostephanus rodgersii. 

 Clypeaster australasioe. 



Holothurians. 



Tceniogyrus australianus. 

 Molpadia dissimilis. 

 Cucumaria mirabilis. 



Some of the species characteristic of this fauna no doubt 

 range south of Lat. 35° and even reach Port Phillip, Victoria, 

 but such cases are exceptional and do not invalidate the 

 recognition of the subregion. The remainder of the more than 

 two hundred Echinoderms known from the eastern coast of 

 Australia, north of Shoalhaven Bight, New South Wales, 

 are Indo-Pacific forms, many of which find a centre of 

 abundance in Torres Strait. The distance southward to 

 which they range differs greatly in different species, but it 

 is evident from the " Endeavour " collection that most of 



