A MONOGRAPH OF THE EXISTING CRINOIDS 425 



Australia; P^ron and Lesucur, 1S03 [A. H. Clark, 1911]. This is an error for 

 Moluccas. 



Indian Seas [Dujardin and Hup(5, 1862]. This refers to the Moluccas. 



Geographical range. — From Singapore and Java to Australia, south to Port 

 Walcott, Western Australia, and Port Molle, Queensland, Fiji, the Gilbert (ICingsmill) 

 Islands, and the Philippines. 



Bathymetrical range. — From the shore line down to 91 meters. Most of the 

 specimens have been taken in very shallow water. 



History. — Among the various species which were included by Lamarck in 1816 

 in his new genus Comatula was Comatula multiradiata, of which he gave a brief 

 description. 



In the preparation of his monograph on the comatulids it was necessary for 

 Johannes Miillcr to know just what the species was to which Lamarck referred. 

 Taldng advantage of a visit to the Paris Museum by Franz Herrmann Troschel, he 

 provided the latter with manuscript descriptions of all the species which he knew 

 and asked him to compare with these the specimens which he found. 



Troschel took notes on one of the 3 specimens which had served as the basis for 

 Lamarck's short account of Comatula multiradiata. The characters indicated by these 

 notes did not agree with those of any described species, and so in 1841 Miiller rede- 

 scribed the specimen as representing a new species which he called Alecio multifida. 



His description is as follows: The cirri are XX + , 14, with a very small opposing 

 spine. There are 44 arms. There are 3 radials (that is, one radial and the IBr series), 

 of which the third is axillary without a syzygy. The IIBr series are 4 (3 + 4). From 

 this point on, so long as the arm division continues, every second segment is axillary, 

 but without a syzygy. The brachials have everted ends. The distal intersyzygial 

 interval is 4 muscular articulations. The pinnules are all long. Between the arm 

 bases the dorsal perisome has many plates which unite the arms as far as the second 

 division. 



Troschel also visited the Leyden Museum and there made notes on a specimen 

 from New Guinea which had been collected by Salomon Miiller. This was described 

 by Johannes Miiller in 1841 under the name of Alecto novae-guineae, as follows: 



The ccntrodorsal is small. The cirri are XV + . There are 56 arms. The third 

 radial (that is, the IBra) is axillary. The IIBr are 4 (3+4). "Between the following 

 axillaries of the arms, which divide four to five times, always only 1 segment. No 

 axillary has a syzygy." This evidently means that the IIIBr and subsequent division 

 series are 2. The distal intersyzygial interval is 3 muscular articulations. The first 2 

 pinnules are very long, the following pinnules becoming shorter. On each segment of 

 the pinnules there are a few spines. The color is brown. The expanse is 8 inches 

 (216 mm.). 



In his monograph published in 1849 Miiller referred both of these species to 

 Comatula. He repeated without change his original description of novae-guineae. 

 In his redescription of multifida, which he himself had examined in the meantime, he 

 gave the number of the arms as 40^4 and the number of the cirrus segments as 16 

 instead of 14. He also mentioned that the last 8 segments of the cirri bore dorsal 



