464 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The disk is 30 mm. in diameter. It bears a variable number of small granules, 

 especially along the ambulacral grooves. Several of the posterior arms are ungrooved. 

 The dorsal perisome is regularly plated as far as the IIIBr axillary. 



iocrtZi^ies.— Abrolhos Islands (Houtman's Rocks), Western Australia [A. H. 

 Clark, 1912, 1913] (1, H. M.). 



Hamburg southwest Australia expedition station 14; Shark Bay; Freycinet 

 Reach, west of Middle Flat as far as the northern point of Heirisson Prong; 11-16 

 meters; bottom at first sandy, later rock with coral; September 12, 1905 [A. H. Clark, 

 1911] (1, H. M.). 



Port Hedland, Western AustraUa (lat. 20° 17' S., long. 118° 34' E.); July, 1905 

 [A. H. Clark, 1911] (4, Berl. M.; H. M.; W. A. M.). PL 73, fig. 199. 



Southwestern AustraUa [A. H. Clark, 1912]. The 2 specimens referred to are 

 the 1 from Shark Bay and the large 1 from Port Hedland. 



Broome, Roebuck Bay, Western Australia; July, 1905 [A. H. Clark, 1912, 1913] 

 (2, Berl. M., 6137; H. M.). 



Western AustraUa [A. H. Clark, 1913] (1, B. M.). 



Northwestern AustraUa [Bell, 1894; A. H. Clark, 1913] (1, B. M.). Same, 119 

 meters [BeU, 1894]. 



Mermaid, northwestern AustraUa; Gazelle [A. H. Clark, 1911, 1912] (arm frag- 

 ments, Berl. M., 2157). 



Thursday Island [Doderlein, 1898]. 



Mer, Murray Islands, Torres Strait; 33 meters; H. L. Clark, October, 1913 

 [H. L. Clark, 1915, 1921] (2, M. C. Z., 586). 



Great Barrier Reef, 4 miles eastnortheast of Mer, Murray Islands; H. L. Clark, 

 October 15, 1913 [H. L. Clark, 1915, 1921] (1, M. C. Z., 549). 



Challenger station 186; Prince of Wales Channel, Torres Strait (lat. 10° 30' N., 

 long. 142° 18' E.); 15 meters; September 9, 1874 [P. H. Carpenter, 1888; A. H. 

 Clark, 1913] (2, B. M.). 



Torres Strait [A. H. Clark, 1911, 1912] (2, U.S.N.M., 36166, 36171). PI. 53, 

 fig. 157. 



Geographical range. — Coasts of Australia, from the Torres Strait region westward 

 and southward to Shark Bay and the Abrolhos Islands. 



Bathymetrical range. — Littoral and sublittoral; the greatest recorded depth is 

 119 meters. 



Remarks. — Comanthina belli is a very curious form. Large specimens are in 

 superficial appearance strikingly like similarly large specimens of Comanthina schlegelii, 

 both species agreeing in possessing a unique type of arm division. The terminal 

 combs of belli and the arm division be5'ond the IIIBr series, however, approach the 

 type characteristic of Comaster, and I find that, taking all the characters together, 

 the smaller the individual the greater is the resemblance to the species of Comaster, 

 and the greater is the difl^erence from similar small specimens of Comanthina schlegelii. 



History. — This species was originally described by Dr. P. H. Carpenter in 1888 

 from 3 specimens which had been coUected by the Challenger in 1874. In 1894 

 additional specimens were recorded by Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell as Actinometra nobilis 

 and Actinometra multifida, and in 1898 Prof. Ludwig Doderlein published additional 

 records from Thursday Island. 



