694 BULLETIN 82, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



COMATULAE 



Comatulae Nutting, Bull. Lab. Nat. Hist., Univ. Iowa, vol. 3, Nos. 1, 2, 1S95, p. 74. 



Professor Nutting said that on the Pentacrinus grounds off Habana, Cuba, 

 "bright yellow Comatulae were fairly abundant, and white or nearly white Coma- 

 tulae were also secured at this place. It occurs to me as possible that Lieutenant 

 Commander Sigsbee may have had these in mind when giving the colors of the 

 pentacrini." 



Most of the comatulids referred to belong to the Comas teridae. 



ANTEDON, 8p. 



Anledon, sp. Savile-Kent, The Great Barrier Reef of Australia, Its Products and Potentialities 

 1892, p. 43; pi. 11, figs. 7, 7A. 



Savile-Kent says: 



Two other members of the same echinodermatous, or sea-urchin and 

 starfish class, observed on the Palm Island reefs, are depicted in the same 

 coloured plate. These are the two Feather-starfish, Antedon sp., repre- 

 sented by figs. 7 and 7A, clinging to the corallum of the Gorgonia in the 

 right hand upper corner. In general form they resemble the Enghsh Feather- 

 star, Comatula rosacea; but they possess about forty, in place of the ten, pinnate 

 arms of the European type. The variety of hues exhibited by the Barrier 

 Reef species are legion, running through every gradation of tints from pale yel- 

 low to rose-pink, deep crimson and black, and mcluding every conceivable 

 intermixture of those colours. One especially handsome racial variety of this 

 feather-star, obtained at Thursday Island, had its fern-like arms resplendent 

 with shades of old-gold and bronze-green. 



One of the individuals figured is shown as bright red with rather widely 



spaced narrow brown bands on the arms which do not extend to the pinnules. 



In the other the arms are brownish yellow banded with dark yellow brown 



and becoming brown basally. The pinnules are entirely bright yellow. 



The cirri are banded light and dark. 



Undoubtedly Savile-Kent refers to the entire comatulid fauna of the Barrier 



Reef. But since Comantkus timorensis is much the commonest and most conspicuous 



of the multibrachiate species in this region, his remarks must be considered as referring 



chiefly, perhaps even entirely, to this form. 



COMATULIDS 



Antedonidae [Bather], Natural Science, vol. 13, 1898, p. 7. 



On the coral reefs at Blaking Mati "the most striking forms are numberless 

 Antedonidae." Doubtless all the littoral famihes of comatulids are included imder 

 this heading, but in such a situation the species of Comasteridae would far outnumber 

 all other types. 



LUNA MARINA ALTERA 



Luna marina altera Seba, Thesaurus, vol. 3, 1761, pi. 9, fig. 4. — A. H. Clark, Crinoids of the 

 Indian Ocean, 1912, p. 280. 



Seba gave no habitat for this form, which appears to be one of the Comasteridae. 

 Linnd referred it to his Asierias pectinata. 



