8 THE ECHINODERMS OF TORRES STRAIT. 
hand only one of his holothurians was found by the earlier collectors. Whether 
these peculiarities of Semon’s collection are in any way connected with the season 
of the year when his work was done, can not be asserted, but it is not at all unlikely. 
The Challenger and Alert collections were made in the early spring, while Dr. Semon 
was at Thursday Island in the late summer and early fall. Nothing is known 
definitely as yet of the seasonal changes in the fauna of a coral reef, or indeed of 
any circumscribed marine area, at least so far as the invertebrates are concerned. 
Mr. Bruce, of the Murray Islands, once remarked to me that he wished I could 
stay on through the rainy season (summer) because I would then find many marine 
animals which were not to be found in September and October. 
In September 1913 the Department of Marine Biology of the Carnegie Insti- 
tution of Washington established a laboratory in Torres Strait, and I was so 
fortunate as to be one of the party that enjoyed its privileges. For a few days we were 
at Thursday Island and that immediate vicinity; we had three days at Erub and a 
hasty visit was paid to Badu, but most of our time was spent at Mer, the largest of 
the Murray Islands. There, as already mentioned, we searched the reefs diligently 
for five weeks, but we were ab'e to do no dredging. A little use was made of “‘tangles,”’ 
but they were not very successful. One afternoon a Japanese diver collected for 
us in the deeper water outside the reef, but with comparatively poor results. In 
spite of the collecting being thus almost entirely confined to the reefs and reef-flats, 
we secured a notable collection of echinoderms made up of the following species: 
Echinoderms collected by Carnegie Expedition in Torres Strait in 1913. 
Heterometra delicata. 
Stephanometra callipecha. 
monacantha. 
stypacantha. 
Lamprometra brachypecha. 
gyges. 
Oligometra anisa. 
Tropiometra afra. 
Dorometra nana. 
ASTEROIDEA: 
Anthenea tuberculosa. 
Oreaster nodosus. 
Culcita noveguines. 
Asterope carinifera. 
Habroporina pulchella. 
Fromia elegans. 
milleporella. 
CRINOIDEFA: ASTEROIDEA—continued. 
Capillaster multiradiata. Nardoa mollis. 
Comatella maculata. novecaledonie. 
nigra. pauciforis. 
stelligera. rosea. 
Comatula pectinata. ° Ferdina ocellata. 
purpurea. Linckia levigata. 
Comanthus alternans. Bunaster uniserialis. 
annulata. Leiaster speciosus. 
callipepla. Ophidiaster granifer. 
luteofusca. lioderma. 
parvicirra. squameus. 
samoana. Tamaria tuberifera. 
schlegelii. Nepanthia brevis. 
Asterina anomala. 
burtonii. 
exigua. 
nuda. 
Echinaster luzonicus. 
Acanthaster planci. 
Valvaster spinifera. 
OPHIUROIDEA: 
Ophiacantha confusa. 
discoidea. 
Amphiura microsoma. 
seplemspinosa. 
Amphiocnida dilatata. 
Ophionephthys octacantha. 
Amphipholis squamata. 
Amphiodia mesopoma. 
Amphioplus parviclypeus. 
relictus, 
