365 



Genus Comaster L. Agassiz. 

 Comastei' typica (Loven). 



A single example of this species was dredged in 19" 42,1' S. lat., 

 116° 49,8' E. long, north of Port Walcott, Western Australia, in 

 50 fathoms. The axillaries are five or six on each ray, the armes being 

 in the vicinity of one hundred in number. All the II Br series are 4 

 (3 + 4), almost all the subsequent series 2(1 + 2), with a few 4 (3 + 4) ; 

 the I Brj are laterally united, but the I Br axillaries are widely sepa- 

 rated. The specimen is rather small (arm length about 70 mm) and the 

 centro-dorsal is rounded-pentagonal, discoidal, rising to a height of 

 0,5 mm above the dorsal surface of the radiais, and bearing a marginal 

 row of but partially obliterated cirrus sockets. The brachials have 

 slightly prominent, finely spinous, distal ends, and the pinnule joints 

 have spinous dorsal surfaces, the terminal four or five with long recur- 

 ved dorsal spines. Terminal combs occur at intervals on the distal 

 pinnules, as usual. The colour in spirits is white, the disk and perisome 

 light brownish. The mouth is subcentral. 



Specimens from Fiji and the Philippine Islands were at hand for 

 comparison. 



Genus Comanthus A. H. Clark. 



Comanthus rotalaria (Lamarck). 



Two specimens, each with about forty arms 80 mm long, were col- 

 lected at Timor; one has one, the other two of the II Br series 2 instead 

 of 4 (3 -f- 4); the remaining division series are all 4 (3 -1- 4). 



Two additional specimens, each with apparently twenty arms, are 

 in the collection , but there is no record of locality with them ; one of 

 these has two of the II Br series 2, the remainder 4 (3 + 4), the other 

 has six 2 and four 4 (3 + 4). In both specimens the centro-dorsal is 

 much reduced with only one or two rudimentary cirri remaining. 



A detached arm fragment from one of these specimens exhibits a 

 peculiar condition, one of the distal pinnules being replaced by a per- 

 fect arm, slightly smaller than the arm from which it springs. On this 

 supernumerary arm both the first and second, as well as the following, 

 brachials bear pinnules, and the third and fourth, eighth and ninth, 

 and thirteenth and fourteenth are united by syzygy. 



Comanthus briareiis (Bell). 



The »Gazelle« dredged a specimen of this interesting species in 

 19° 42,1' S. lat., 116° 49,8' E. long (north of Port Walcott, Western 

 Australia) in 50 fathoms of water. It has nearly one hundred arms 



