THE RECENT CRINOIDS OF AUSTRALIA CLARK. 755 



and its large centiodorsal wliich bears numerous long and stcut 

 cirri with thirty or more segments wliicli are all practically of the 

 same size and do not develop dorsal spines or ridges. 



Australian Record. — Harllaub 1ms examined a specimen of 

 this magnificent species from Port Denison, wliich was originally 

 in the Godeffroj Museum where it had received the MS. name 

 brachyniera from Professor Liitken. 



Distribution. — Covianthiis beniietli ranges from the Bay of 

 Bengal eastward to the Pelew Islands, and south to Queensland. 



Remarks. — Carpenter's Actinometra perooiii, the type of which 

 I examined at Leyden, is identical with IVliiller's Alecto bennetti, 

 of which the type is in the same museum. 



Professor Koehler records Actinometra robustipinna from 

 Amboina, l)ut, judging from his description, his specimen was 

 undoubtedly an example of this species. The type of Carpenter's 

 Actinometra robustipinna, which I examined at J^eyden, is a much 

 mutilated example of some species of Himercmetra, possibly H. 

 crassipinua, and is not an ^^Actinometra" at all. 



COMANTHUS (BENNETTIA) TRICHOPTERA {J. Midler). 



Comatula trichoptera, 1846, J. Miiller, Motiatsber. k. preuss. 



Akad., 1846, p. 178 (King George Sound). 



Actinometra tricliopetra, 1888, Bell, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 



[6] vol. 2, p. 402 {Port Phillip) ; 1888, P. H. Carpenter, 



"Challenger" Rejiorts, Zool., vol. 26, pp. 345, 383 (Port 



Jackson; Port Phillip; King George Sound); 1889, Proc. 



Hoy. Soc. Vict., vol. 2 (n.s.), p. 135 {Port Pliillip) ; 1889, 



Whitelegge, Journ. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales, vol. 23, p. 198 



{Port Jackson). 



Differential Characters. — This interesting species cannot well 



be mistaken for any other. The division series are almost 



invariably 4 (3 + 4); the axillaries have a curiously produced 



distal angle ; the arms vary from twenty to thirty-tive in number ; 



the cirri are very numerous, confined to the margin of a thin and 



broad centrodorsal, and aie typically very slender, with about 



twenty segments. 



Comanthus trichoptera is the southernmost representative of an 

 otherwise tiopical family, and is exclusively confined to the 

 eastern and southern coast of Australia and the coast of Tasmania. 

 It is most nearly related to C. samoana which, however, has fewer, 

 much shorter and stouter cirri which have fewer segments and 

 are strongly compressed laterally toward the tip. 



Specimens in the Australiaii Muserim (Jollectioti. — Brougliton 

 Island, N.S. Wales. — Five sjiecimeLis ; one of these has twenty 



