720 



"1576 " THETIS " SCIENTIFIC KESULTS. 



In 1898 Professor Ludwig Doderlein published an account of 



a collection of Crinoids from Amboina and Tliursdny Island ; the 



species recorded by him, with their present identification are: — 



Antedon elegans ... ... Zy<iometra elegans 



Antedon mict'odiscus ... Zygometra microdiscus 



Antedon hidens ... ... Oligomefra adeonai 



Antedon ludovici ... ... (Jraspedometra amUicirra 



Antedon imparijnn^ia ... Dichrometra 2)i"ofectus 



Actinometra pectinata ... Comatula j^ectinata 



Actinometra Solaris ... ... Comatida Solaris 



Actinometra j^aucicirra . . . Comatula rotalaria 



J .■ ^ 7 77- f Comaster niuJfifida 



Actinometra oelii ... ... < ^v ,j . j „. 



I vomanthtna betti 



, .• ^ . ■ i Comanthus anmdata 



Actinometra parmctrra ... < ^ ^, 



^ \ Lomanthus 2)arviG%rra 



Actinometra regalis Comanthina schlegelii 



The Australian Crinoid Fauna. 



As known to-day the Ctinoid fauna of the littoral and sub- 

 littoral zones about the continent of Australia (including Tas- 

 mania) is composed of forty-six species, included in nineteen 

 genera and nine families ; eight of these families, including eigh- 

 teen of the nineteen genera, belong to the suborder Oligophreata. 

 Twenty of the species and one of the genera are only known 

 from Australia ; but the latter is closely allied to two other genera 

 characteristic of the East Indian region. 



The proportionate frequency of the genera and species in the 

 several families is entirely different from what is found in other 

 parts of the world. The Comasteridfe are represented by five 

 genera and nineteen species, five of which have not been found 

 elsewhere; the Zygometridse, though represented by only one of 

 the three genera, include three species, all peculiar to Australia ; 

 only two other recent species of this genus are known ; the 

 Hiraerometridse are represented by three genera, while the families 

 Mariametridse and Stephanometridse have one each ; all of the 

 four genera of Colobometridse inhabit Australia, one of the genera 

 including three Australian species. There are two Australian 

 genera of Tropiometridse, one of which is not known elsewhere ; 

 the great family Thalassouietridis, which includes sixteen genera 

 and very numerous species, is represented by three species ; 

 and the very large cosmopolitan family Antedonidse, containing 

 nearly twenty-five genera, includes but a single genus in Austra- 

 lian waters, with two species, neither of them known elsewhere. 



The great majority of the Australian Crinoids are tropical 

 species which have extended their range southward from the East 

 Indian region, and they are therefore limited to the coast of 



