ECHINODERMA. 5 



III. ECHINOIDEA. 



CiDARIDAE. 



CiDARIS CAXALICULATA. 



Temnocidaris canalkidata, A. Asijassiz, Bull. M.C.Z. i. (1863), p. is. 



Goniocklaris canaJinilata, id. Rev. Ediiii. (1872), p. 131 ; Wyv. Thomson, Journ. Linn. Soc. xiii. (187G), 



p. 65 ; Loven, Bih. Svensk. Akiid. Hdlg. xiii. iv., 1. p. 5 ; Agass., Mem. M.C.Z. xxxi. (1901), p. 4. 

 Gklaris (Borocidnris) canaUcvlata, Doderlein, Jap. Seeigel, i. (1887), p. 10. 



Gidaris canaUcuhita, Meissnor, Ergebn. Hamb. Magalli. Sammelreise, v. (1900), ]., p. ?, iUque cdata. 

 Stereocidaris canalkidata, Mortenseii, Ingolf Echinoid. (1903), p. 29. 



I have given the name of C. canaliculata to a number of specimens of an 

 Echinoid, which were mainly collected at a depth of 100 fms., but I must own to 

 grave doubts as to the correctness of the name. It seems to have escaped notice 

 that this consensu omnium (with the exception of Dr. Mortensen*) circumpolar 

 Antarctic form was first described from the " Caroline Islands," which Caroline Islands 

 we surmise to be those in the Pacific, as in the Revision of the Echini we find 

 " Caroline and Sandwich Islands " ; elsewhere, Zanzibar and the Navigator Islands are 

 given as habitats, "if the localities are to be trusted"; that is to say, the species 

 was founded on specimens said to be found within the tropics. 



I am not going to join those who claim that forms must differ specifically, either 

 because they are found at different spots or different depths ; but, as I showed many 

 years ago, there is a distinct intertropical fauna in the Great Ocean ,f and the fact, if 

 fact it be, that a member of that fauna is also a circumpolar Antarctic form ought to 

 rest on the firmest possible basis. Unfortunately, the National Collection has no 

 examples fi-om any station further north than Tasmania. 



Again, the original diagnosis, based on the Caroline specimen or specimens, is too 

 short for a form which every student who has examined it, except Dr. Mortensen, allows to 

 be eminently variable ; with the exception of Prof. Doderlein, none of these students has 

 given a serious diagnosis of the species, and even his is not altogether what one wants. 



Yet another difficulty remains to be mentioned ; it is generally agreed that 

 C\ nutrix | and C. vivipara are synonyms of C. canaliculata ; in other words, the form 

 has a marsupial habit, but I cannot detect signs of it in the specimens before me ; 

 it may be, of course, as it curiously is in the case of Hemiaster cavernosus, that this 

 collection consists of males only ; but Mr. Hodgson tells me that he observed no signs 

 of viviparous habit ; our experience, in fact, is_ the same as that of the late Felix 

 Bernard § : " Quoicj[ue G. canaliculata soit signale comme vivipare, je n'ai pas constate 

 aucuu jeune sur le corps des adultes." 



* Op. cit., p. 27. 



t For some modification of this doctrine, see Prof. Koeliler in " Die Faima Sudwest-Australiens " I. iv. 

 (1907), p. 242. 



t Prof. Lyman Clark doubts this (see f.-n. next page) ; of C. vivipara of Studer he makes no mention. 

 § Bull. Mus. Paris, i. (1895), p. 272. 



VOL. IV. (.• 



