749 



THE RECENT CRINOIDS OF AUSTRALIA— CLAEK. 706 



The character of the cirri as given by Professor Eell, however, 

 while it shows that variabilis cannot be the same as 'tnultibrachi- 

 ata, removes all possibility of distinguishing the supposed species 

 from typica, a form already known from North-western Aus- 

 tralia, and represented in the collection of the Australian Museum 

 from Port Molle, Queensland. From the original description and 

 the figure, supplemented by the data which Professor Bell was so 

 kind as to send me in correspondence, it is evident that the only 

 course open to us is to place Actiuometra variabilis in the syno- 

 nymy of Phanoyenia typica, of which species it is merely a slightly 

 immature stage. 



Di^erential Characters. — Comaster typica when fully grown has 

 no cirri. The arms, which are from sixty to nearly two hundred 

 in number, arise by a curious method of branching analagous to 

 that found in certain fossil Crinoids ; the I Br axillaries give rise 

 to two division series ; these II Br 4 (3-1-4) division series bear 

 outwardly undivided arms, and inwardly a division series of 2, 

 whicli, in turn give off inwardly undivided arms and outwardly 

 a IV Br series, and so on. The general appearance is that of two 

 stout arm trunks arising from each II Br axillary, each of these 

 trunks giving off undivided arms on either side alternately, finally 

 terminating in a pair of arms. No other Australian Crinoid 

 except the following possesses this scheme of arm division. 'J'he 

 occurrence of terminal combs at intervals all along the arm and 

 the slenderness of the proximal pinnules, as well as the apparent 

 syzygy between the two elements of each di\ision series, also 

 assist in identifying the form. Taken altogether, this is much 

 the easiest of all the Australian Comasterids to recognize. 



Sjjecimens in the Australian Museum Collection. — Port Molle, 

 Queensland — One small immature specimen with about fifty 

 arms. The centrodorsal has a row of twelve cirrus sockets which 

 in life bore functional cirri ; one cirrus stump of two segments 

 remains. The interradial lateral portion of the disk is completely 

 plated, a character not previously reported in this species (though 

 sometimes occurring in C. mullifida) and possibly only found in 

 the young, as in the young of Gomactinia meridionalis. 



Additional Australian R-iCords. — The "Gazelle" dredged a single 

 specimen of this species in 19° 42.1' S. lat., 116" 49.8' E. long, 

 (north of Port Walcott, Western Australia), in 50 fathoms. The 

 "Alert" dredged a specimen in Prince of Wales Chinnel, Torres 

 Strait, in 5-7 fathoms, and ol)tained four others at Thursday 

 Island. It has been reported l>y Bell from North-western Aus- 

 tralia in from 9 to 38 fathoms. 



Range. — Comaster typica is found from Singapore to the 

 Philippines and Fiji, and the Gilbert (Kingsniill) Islands, and 

 southward to Norti)ern Australia. 



