24 ECHINODERMA OF THE InDIAN MuSEUM, PART VII. 



pagos Islands. Hawaii, and the western Aleutian Islands. Several species are 

 known from the deeper parts of the Atlantic also. On the outskirts of its range 

 the species keep near to or below the bathyraetric average of the genus, not occur- 

 ring above 300 fathoms, but occurring from that depth down to 1,600. In the 

 central East Indian region two species are known from only 30 fathoms but, on 

 the other hand, none descend deeper than 650 fathoms. 



All of the nine other genera of the family which occur in the East Indian 

 region are peculiai' to it, and the range of most of them is quite restricted, at 

 least geographically. 



Cosmiometra , next to Thalassometra. is the most widely spread; while it 

 does not itself occur in the Atlantic, it has a close relative there (Stylometra). 

 Found in the south-western part of the Indian Ocean, Cosmiometra extends to 

 northern Australia, the Hawaiian Islands, and southern Japan, ranging in depth, 

 so far as is known, between 136 and 319 fathoms, both of these extremes being 

 found in the Hawaiian Islands. 



The genus Stiremetra is interesting in having the greatest range in depth of 

 any comatulid genus, from the shore line down to 1,350 fathoms. Its four species 

 are found from New South Wales and Queensland to Fiji, the Kermadec Islands, 

 and the Philippines. 



The genus Ptilomeira occurs only in shallow water (down to 35 fathoms) 

 about the coasts of southern Australia, being represented in the Philippines and 

 thence east to Ceylon by the closely allied genus Pterometra which is found in 

 water from 37 to 58 fathoms in depth. Another closely allied genus is Astero- 

 ■metra, found from northern Australia to the Ki and Philippine I.slands and 

 southern Japan in depths of from 28 to 140 fathoms. 



The genus Crolalomefra is found from the Meangis and Kermadec to the 

 Pliilippine Islands in depths of from 340 to 630 fathoms, Slenometra occurs in the 

 Ki Islands, the Philippines, and in southern Japan, in water from 80 to 170 

 fathoms deep, and Parametra ranges geographically from the Ki and Philippine 

 Islands and southern Japan to the Hawaiian Islands and bnthymetrically from 97 

 certainly to about 200 fathoms, possibly to 352. 



Charitom etridce . 



The distribution of the Charitometridaj closely parallels that of the Thallasso- 

 metridae though ib is somewhat more restricted, but, while the average depth 

 inhabited by the species is about the same, none of them are found in such deep 

 water as are those of the latter, and neither are there any littoral species, though 

 one comes within 30 fathoms of the surface. 



Geographically, members of the family are found from tlie Hawaiian and 

 Meangis Islands and southern Japan to the Red Sea, and also in the West Indies, 

 all these localities supporting representatives of the genera Pachylometra, Glypto- 

 metra. or Crinomelra. three genera which are very closely related and which, for 

 purposes of zoogeography, may well be considered as one. Collectively, they are 



