TRANSACTIONS 



OF 



THE LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



I. On the Genus Actinornetra, Mull., with a Morphological Account of a new Species 

 (A.) polymorpha from the Philippine Islands. — Parti. By P. Herbert Carpenter, 

 M.A., Assistant Master at Eton College. {Communicated byW. B. Carpenter, 

 C.B., M.B., LL.D., F.B.S., F.Z.S.) 



(Plates I.-VIII.) 



Read June 21st, 1877. 



I HE principal part of the investigations, of which the results are set forth in the fol- 

 lowing pages, were carried on during the year 1876, in the Zool.-Zootomical Institute of 

 the University of Wiirzburg, under the superintendence of its director, Prof. C. Semper. 

 I would here express my most sincere thanks to Prof. Semper, not only for the 

 generous manner in which he placed at my disposal all his specimens of Act. polymorpha, 

 which he had himself collected in the Philippine Islands, hut also for the ready and 

 valuable advice which he constantly afforded me during the progress of my work, and 

 for the free use which he permitted me to make of his extensive library. I am also 

 greatly indebted to Dr. Sandberger, Professor of Geology in the University of vYiirzburg, 

 to the authorities of the University Library, and to Professor Dr. Halm, of the Royal 

 Library at Munich, for the means of reference to many books which would otberwise 

 have remained inaccessible to me ; and I desire to record my best thanks to all these 

 gentlemen for the ready kindness with which they met my frequent and numerous 

 wants. 



I. Historical. 

 (§ 1) In the remarkable work of Linckius 1 upon the " Sea Stars," the modern family 

 Comatulidce (J. Miiller) is described under the name of Crinita), or Comatse Stelloe, as a 

 group distinct not only from the Asterida?, but also from the Ophiuridaa and from 

 Astrophyton {Euryale, Lamarck), with which they have been united by many later 

 systematists. 



1 Johannis Henkici Lisckii Lipsiensis ' De Stellis Harinis liter singularis,' Lipsise, 1733, p. 53. 

 SECOND SERIES. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. II. 1 



