680 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Mr. Herbert C. Chad wick in 1904 recorded Actinometra parvicirra from a number 

 of localities about Ceylon, his specimens representing Comanthus parvicirra and C. 

 timorensis, and Comissia chadwicki. 



Shortly after taking up the study of the crinoids in 1907 I discovered that 

 Actinometra is a pure synonym of Comatula. In transferring Carpenter's species 

 from Actinometra to Comatula I found that his Actinometra (now Comatula) simplex 

 described in the Challenger report was preoccupied by the Comatula simplex men- 

 tioned by him in 1881. As he gave a few of the characters of the latter, the name 

 can not be considered as a nomen nudum. The Actinometra simplex described in the 

 Challenger report I therefore renamed Comatula orientalis. Later in the same year 

 I published a revision of the genus Actinometra as understood by Carpenter, dividing 

 it into 2 genera, Comatula and Comaster. In this paper I did not attempt a revision 

 of the species, but simply listed under Comaster the various forms admitted in the 

 Challenger report and here referred to parvicirra. 



In July, 1908, in a paper on the crinoids of Japan based on the collection of Mr. 

 Alan Owston, I recorded Comaster parvicirra from 2 localities in Sagami Bay. These 

 specimens subsequently proved to be examples of Comaster serrata. In a paper pub- 

 lished in August, 1908, I noted that in 1849 Miiller had placed his Alecto elongata, 

 described in 1841, in the genus Comatula, as Comatula elongata. If Actinometra is 

 to be considered as a synonym of Comatula, then the Actinometra elongata described 

 by Carpenter in the Challenger report also becomes Comatula elongata. For Car- 

 penter's Actinometra elongata I therefore suggested the name Comatula helianthus. 



The previous revision of the species included by Carpenter in the genus Actino- 

 metra having proven unsatisfactory, on October 30, 1908, I published another based 

 on a detailed study of the brachial homologies. In this paper the described forms 

 herein considered as synonymous with parvicirra were referred to the genus Phano- 

 genia. 



Shortly after this paper was written I received the first installfnent of the crinoids 

 from the Albatross cruise in Philippine and adjacent waters. This series, from 7 

 different Albatross stations and also including specimens with no definite locality, 

 made it clear that the forms described by Carpenter in the Challenger report under 

 the names of Actinometra parvicirra and Actinometra rotalaria are specifically identical, 

 and I therefore called the type Comanthus rotalaria. 



In regard to the use of Lamarck's name rotalaria I said that some question might 

 of course arise in regard to the correctness of Carpenter's conception of rotalaria; 

 but he personally examined mmutely the collection at Paris, and so careful was he in 

 regard to specific discrimination that I believe we are safe in assuming the identity of 

 the Paris specimens and those dredged by the Challenger at Zamboanga. 



In 1909 I recorded Comanthus rotalaria from 4 additional Albatross stations in 

 the Philippines, and in another paper recorded specimens which had been collected 

 by the Gazelle, some at Timor and some at an unknown locality. 



Dr. Th. Mortensen had been so kind as to send me for examination in 1908 the 

 remarkably fine comatulid collection of the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen. 

 A study of this collection, in connection with that made in the Philippines by the 

 Albatross, showed that parvicirra, as understood by Carpenter, is divisible iato a 



