156 COLLECTIONS FROM MELANESIA. 



differ in comparatively unimportant details, of a kind which are 

 probably adaptive. 



(/3) There is a marked tendency to the development of a small 

 number of short cirri *. 



(y) And ten species have lost the cirri altogether. 



(?) Of the eleven species the formula of no two is exactly the 

 same. 



1. Antedon adeonae. 



Comatula adeonre, J. Millie?; Gattung Comatula, p. 15+. 



A white line, which extends along the middle of the radials, the 

 rest of which is of a reddish purple, is continued for a short though 

 varying distance along each of the arms. 



There is a curious error in connexion with this species which 

 does not seem to have been noticed. Lamarck described it as 

 " C. radiis pinnatis denis &c. ;" de Blainville, while quoting Lamarck, 

 refers also to his own figures in his 'Atlas' (pi. xxvi.) ; in this 

 reference he is followed by J. Miiller and by the editors of the 

 second edition of Lamarck. The figures, however, when referred to 

 are seen to be those of a species with twenty arms and with cirri 

 nearer thirty than twenty. It is not perhaps necessary at this 

 distance of time to waste time in inquiring what species it is that 

 de Blainville has there figured. 



Port Curtis and Port Denison. 



2. Antedon milberti. 

 Comatula (Alecto) milberti, J. Midler, p. 19. 



The rich supply of this species in the present collection % amply 

 justifies the doubts which Mr. Carpenter has expressed to me as to 

 the exactness of the locality (North America) ascribed by Miiller to 

 this species. 



Port Molle; Port Denison; Prince of Wales Channel; Torres 

 Straits. 



3. Antedon pinniformis. 

 P. H. Carpenter, Notes Leyd. Mus. iii. p. 180. 



Dundas Strait, N.W. Australia. 



* So far as we know at present, c rarely appears i i the formula of an Actino- 

 mctra ; in words, the cirri are rarely very numerous (more than 30) or very long 

 (witli more than 40 joints). 



t The essay on Comatula, the pagination of which is here quoted from its 

 separate copy, was published in 1849 in the ' Abhandl.' of the Academy of 

 Berlin for 1847, where it occupies pp. 237-265. 



{ Tt is also well represented in a collection of Mr. E. P. Ramsay's, of the 

 Australian Museum, Sydney. 



