142 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



History. — This species was originally described by Count Pourtales in 1878 from 

 2 specimens (M. C. Z., 494) each with 20 arms from the Blake collection, but of which 

 the original label had been lost. 



In 1881 Dr. P. H. Carpenter wrote that it had been obtained by the Blake 

 at 29 stations in the Caribbean Sea m 1878-79, and once in the previous season, the 

 Hassler had dredged it off Barbados, and it had been found by the Investigator off 

 St. Lucia and also on the Martinique-Dominica cable. 



Carpenter united under the name pulchella both the Antedon alata and the 

 Antedon imlchella described by Pourtales, preferring the latter name because the 

 former refers to a feature, the perisomic webbing of the pinnules, which, though very 

 marked in some individuals, is barely traceable in others. 



In his original description Pourtales compared Antedon pulchella only with 

 A. [Crinometra] granidifera, the description of which is inserted between that of 

 .^-1. alata and that of A. pulchella, and he seems not to have noticed the close affinity of 

 the 2 last. It was quite natural that he should have done this, for on casual exami- 

 nation granulifera, with its granular ornamentation, is intermediate in appearance 

 between the highly ornate alata and the smooth pidchella. 



Carpenter's redescription of pulchella is based upon specimens of both pulchella 

 and alata. 



In 1883 von Graff in his report upon the myzostomes of the Blake expedition 

 gave a number of definite localities for this species, and in the following year Carpenter 

 published various notes on its anatomy, while von Graff repeated the locality records 

 in connection with his report on the Challenger myzostomes. 



In 1908 I wrote that the name alata must be used for this species instead of 

 pulchella since it has page priority, and also since pulchella is preoccupied. But 

 according to the accepted rules of nomenclature page priority is without significance 

 in this connection, while, although it is true that the name pulchella occurs previously 

 in the genus Antedon, Ganymeda pulchella of Gray, 1834, being one of the synonyms 

 of Antedon bifida, the combination Antedon pidchella was never used before so that 

 pulchella as the name for this species is perfectly valid. 



No additional information regarding this species was forthcoming until 1912 

 when Hartlaub's memoir on the Blake comatulids appeared. He considered this 

 form merely as a variety of echinoptera, and recorded the specimens under several 

 different varietal and subvarietal names. 



Except in the publications relating to the cruise of the Blake in 1878-79 this 

 species has been only once recorded, 2 specimens having been secured off Habana, 

 Cuba, by the University of Iowa's Bahama expedition in 1 893, as stated by Dr. Hubert 

 Lyman Clark in 1918. 



NEOCOMATELLA ALATA (PourtalJs) 



Plate 7, Figure 22 

 [See also vol. 1, pt. 2, fig. 792 (adambulacral deposits), p. 372] 

 Antedon alata PouKTALfes, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 5, No. 9, 1878, p. 215 (Barbados, 100 

 fathoms; Hassler; description).— P. H. Carpenter, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 9, No. 4, 1881, 

 p. 159 (united with pulchella); p. 160, last two footnotes (differential characters) .—Bell, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1882, p. 532 (listed).— P. H. Carpenter, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 

 1882 (1883), p. 746 (synonym of pulchella). — A. H. Clark, Univ. Iowa, Studies in Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 9, No. 5, 1921, p. 6 (history). 



