232 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME 1 



Geographical range. — From west of Sierra Leone and Liberia north to Morocco, 

 the Canary Ishmds, Azores and Madeira and east in the Mediterranean to Algeria, 

 doubtfully from Tunisia, Sicily and Corsica. 



[Notes by A.M.C] In 1914 Mr. Clark listed moroccana as from Ajaccio (Corsica), 

 Messina (Sicily), Algiers, Tangier, the coasts of Morocco, Goree in Senegal, Madeira, 

 Lanzarote in the Canaries and the Bay of San Pedro in the Azores. In 1911 and 1914 

 he commented that he had not seen the Porcupine specimens from Bizerta (Tunisia) 

 but they were more likely to be of A. mediterranea. Nevertheless in the typescript of 

 this monograph he liad included Tunisian records of Antedon under moroccana and 

 refen-ed records from the Azores back to A. bifida. It is likely that he had not himself 

 examined specimens from the Azores but was quoting the record of Barrois (18SS). 

 Certainly the specimens collected by the Queen Mary College expedition to Fayal in 

 the Azores all have the markedly expanded cirri characteristic of moroccana. As for 

 Tunisia, Cherbonnier (1956) and Tortonese (1935) among others have recorded as 

 mediterranea numerous specimens from Tunisia; also Tortonese commented that none 

 of his specimens from Gerba (Djerba) off southeast Tunisia have the cirri with theu- 

 outer segments strongly compressed. I am therefore arbitrarily referring all the 

 Tunisian records to mediterranea and the Algerian ones to moroccana. The specimens 

 Ranson (1925) named mediterranea, if they have been preserved, should help to show 

 the geographical limits of tliese two forms. Tortonese (1955) has suggested that at 

 least the jVlgerian specimens of Ranson are really bifida (i.e., moroccana which he 

 thought to be synonymous). 



As for the records from Ajaccio and Messina, Gislen renamed the specimens as 

 A. dubenii like others from Tangier, so it is unhkely that they could be mediterranea. 



There are two other possible localities. Lo Bianco (1899) stated that a small variety 

 of Antedon occurs in the Bay of Naples in the Posidonia fields in 10 to 15 meters, which 

 may prove to have been moroccana. and Marion (1883) wrote that in the vicinity of 

 Marseilles on the muddy gravel soutli of the island of Rion and Planier in 100 to 200 

 meters Leptometra phalangium is found togctiier with very small Antedons, which 

 appear stunted. It is possible that the latter were moroccana, not mediterranea, as he 

 supposed. 



Finally, there are a number of locahties from West Africa given by Gislen m his 

 Atlantide Report (1955) under the name of dubenii in addition to those included in 

 the locality list (the specimens from which I have personally examined). At least the 

 more northern of these, such as the stations north of about 8° N., and also Mortensen's 

 records and Dana station 4015 from the Canaries probably yielded .4. bifida moroccana 

 rather than ^1. hupferi. 



Bathymetrical range. — From the shore line down to 200 [?380] meters. 



History. — In 1878 Professor A. F. Marion, recording the feather star for the first 

 time from Algiers, noted that there it differed considerably from typical A. mediterranea 

 and approached A. petasus; he compared it m some detail with both of these. Speaking 

 of the fauna of Algiers, he said that the feather star, of which he had many specimens, 

 recalls the form whicli occurs on the coasts of Provence, on the deep muddy bottoms, 

 and which, in spite of its large size and its long pinnules, perliaps only represents a 

 variety of A. mediterranea. In the specimens from Algiers, according to Professor 

 Marion, the bare dorsal pole of the centrodorsal is very small. The cirri are rather short 

 and stout, XXVI or XXVII, or even XXVIII, in number; their segments are strongly 



