DR. P. H. CARPENTER ON SOME ARCTIC COMATUL^. 53 



Notes on some Arctic Coraatulje. By P. Herbert Carpenter, 

 D.Sc, F.E.S., P.L.S., Assistant Master at Eton College. 



[Read 4th June, 1891.] 

 (Plate II.) 



The object of this paper is to endeayour to clear up some of the 

 uncertainty which appears to exist in the minds of those natu- 

 ralists who have had occasion to study the Arctic Comatulae, 

 respecting the characters of one or two widely distributed species, 

 and more especially that which was described by Duncan and 

 Sladen under the name of Antedon prolixa *. It has been 

 recently regarded as only a full-grown and highly developed 

 form of the small Antedon tenella, Eetzius, sp., which is better 

 known to European naturalists under the name oi Antedon Sarsii ; 

 but I hope to show that this view is incorrect, and only results 

 from an imperfect acquaintance with the characters of the last 

 mentioned type. The validity of another Arctic species, that 

 which I have called Antedon quadraia, has also been challenged, 

 ovviug to the resemblance between its younger stages and those 

 ol Antedon Eschrichti, though more mature individuals of the 

 two types have seemed very distinct to those who have compared 

 them directly. 



One, if not both, of these disputed species, Antedon quadrata 

 and A. prolixa, was discovered by the ' Porcupine ' in 1869 in 

 the cold area of the Faroe Channel ; but they remained without 

 notice for some years. In 1872-3, however, they were both 

 obtained by the ill-fated ' Tegetthoff ' in the neighbourhood of 

 Nova Zembla and Eranz Joseph Land respectively ; and they were 

 referred by von Marenzeller f to Antedon celtica, Barrett, and 

 A. Sarsii, Diiben and Keren. Their subsequent history may be 

 summarized as follows : — 



Specimens obtained 



by : — r A. Eeferred to Antedon celtica, Barrett, by Ton 



1877. The ' Tegetthoff.' ] Marenzeller. 



I B. Eeferred to A. Sarsii by Ton Marenzeller. 



* ' A Memoir on the Echinodermata of the Arctic Sea to the West of Grreen- 

 land ' (London, 1881), p. 77. 



t " Die Ccelenteraten, Echinodermen und Wiirmer der k. k. Oesterreichisch- 

 Ungarischen Nordpol-Expedition," Denkschr. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Wien, 1877 

 [1878], Bd. xMv. pp. 380-382. 



