254 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM VOLUME l 



It is very coininoii in the Ba^- of Naples (Lo Bianco, 1888, 1899), living by pref- 

 erence on bottoms of detritus and on coralline banks at depths from 20 to more than 

 100 meters. A smaller variety occurs in the Posidonia fields in 10 to 15 meters. 



When at the Naples Station in 1910, I was told that it was then quite rare. 



In the Aegean Sea among the Cyclades, Forbes (1844) found it to be local on 

 weedy ground in 37 to 55 meters. 



In the Sea of Marmara, as elsewhere, it appears to be locally abundant. In the 

 four dredge hauls of the Selanik at which it occurred (Ostroumoff, 1896) there were 

 found 1 (Stations 31, in 85 meters, and 36, in 53 meters), 2 (Station 35, in 72 to 77 

 meters), and 683 (Station 61, in 32 to 43 meters) individuals. 



Dr. William T. M. Forbes has told me that it is abundant locally near Istanbul. 

 He himself has found it at Bebek and Rumili llissar, and quantities are picked up by 

 the nets of the fishermen operating from Istanbul in various localities in the adjacent 

 waters. 



In the Bosphorus at Istanbul, between the Tour de Leandre and Top-Hane, 

 Marion (1898) dredged numerous large specimens with robust arms and with the oppos- 

 ing spine only sHghtly developed; he remarked that the slender specimens of littoral 

 localities were not observed. He said that these cannot be distinguished except as a 

 variety of the form extending from the Zostera fields to the muddy sand of great depths 

 on the coast of Provence. 



Dr. E. Tortonese, 1954 and 1957, recorded the species from a number of localities 

 along the coast of Israel, where it was collected by members of the Hebrew University 

 in Jerusalem. In Egj'pt the species has only been reported from Alexandria by Mor- 

 tensen and Steuer, 1937. Tortonese (1935) has also recorded mediterranea from Malta 

 and from off the western end of Tripolitania. There are numerous records of Antedon 

 from off Tunisia, notably by Cherbonnier (1956), P. H. Carpenter (1884) and Hanson 

 (1925), which are now assumed to be of mediterranea, but some of those from the north 

 coast at least may be of bifida moroccana. Alternatively mediterranea may extend 

 into eastern Algeria. 



Gourret (1893) has found the arms of this species in a Labrus mixtus taken in the 

 Gulf of Marseille in 1892; but this occurrence was undoubtedly accidental as there is 

 no evidence that crinoids form any part of the normal food of fishes. 



This species occurs as a fossil in the Pleistocene marly clavs at Taranto (Bassani, 

 1905). 



Occurrence of the pentacrinoids. — Professor de Lacaze-Duthiers (1891) says that 

 at Rosas the breeding period set in at the beginning of April; shortly afterwards the 

 glass and the stones of the aquarium and the stems of sponges were covered with in- 

 numeralde larvae in all stages of development. After an interval of two days the 

 pentacrinoids were formed and with a lens their arms and pinnules could be observed. 



He remembers having found carpets of pentacrinoids under the stones of the Fron- 

 tignan jetty at Cette in August and September. 



In the echinoderm tank in the aquarium at Naples, almost always attached to the 

 walls or to old branches of gorgonians or antipatharians, there may be seen the pen- 

 tacrinoids of tliis species in various stages up to a length of about 7 mm., beyond which 

 size they do not develop, perhaps because of lack of food (Lo Bianco, 1888). 



For further details regarding the breeding season see vol. 1, part 2, p. 373. 



