30 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.37. 



Disk very large, 30 mm. to 42 mm. in diameter, naked; anal tube 

 large, central or subcentral; mouth variable, radial. 



Pd very stout basally but tapering rather rapidly as far as the 

 ventral surface of the disk, 35 mm. to 40 mm. long; Pp less stout 

 basally, 30 mm. long; P^ 25 mm. long; P. small, weak, and slender, 

 10 nnn. to 12 mm. long; P3 and P^ similar, 7 nun. and G mm. long, 

 respectively; P5 and following pinnules 5 mm. long, without terminal 

 combs, increasing slowly to 12 mm. distally. 



Ti/pe-specimen.— Cat No. 25517, U.S.N.M., from Sagami Bay, 

 Japan. 



This is the most common comasterid along the shores of southern 

 Japan, where it appears to represent 6'. (6'.) hennetti of the East 

 Indian littoral. It may be at once distinguished from that species 

 by the great breadth of the division series, the short distal ci»rus 

 joints, which bear dorsal processes, and the much smaller number of 

 arms. Carpenter's Actinometra rohustipinna appears to be a 

 synom^m of Midler's Alecto 1)671716^. 



COMANTHUS (COMANTHUS) SAMOANA, new species. 



Centro-dorsal small, discoidal, the bare polar area flat, 2 mm. or 

 3 mm. in diameter; cirrus sockets arranged in a single more or less 

 irregular marginal row. 



Cirri short, but comparatively stout XVIII-XXIII, usually 13-14, 

 10 mm. long; fourth and fifth joints about twice as long as broad, 

 the seventh and following about one-third broader than long; fifth 

 and following joints with the distal dorsal edge somewhat thickened, 

 this thickening gradually narrowing distally and increasing in 

 height, appearing in lateral view as a slight subterminal tubercle; 

 third, fourth, and fifth joints " dice-box shaped " with enlarged ends, 

 the following rather strongly flattened laterally so that in lateral 

 view the cirri apj^ear to inci'ease in diameter distally. 



Radials and usually all of the IBr^ concealed; IIBr 4 (3+4) well 

 separated laterally. 



Fifteen to twenty-one arms GO mm. to 70 mm. long, rather slender, 

 resembling those of C. (6'.) trichoptera^ the brachials in the proximal 

 half with rather strongly overlapping distal edges. 



Pinnules essentially as in C. {€.) tnclioptera^ but remarkable for 

 the great development of spines on the dorsal surface of the joints. 



Type-specimen. — Cat. No. 25514, U.S.N.M,, from Samoa ; collected 

 by C. N. E. Eliot. 



The stout and numerous cirri of this little species render it very 

 readily distinguishable from C. (C) rotalaria, while the slender and 

 thread-like cirri of C (C.) trichoptera at once differentiate that 

 species from it. 



