756 " THETIS " SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



arms 90 mm. long and cirri xxvi., 19-21, 12 mm. long ; two of the 

 others are similar with twenty-fotirand twenty-eiglit arms, another 

 is small with sixteen arms 35 mm. long, and the last is also small. 

 Port Jackson — Seven specimens ; atypical example has twenty 

 arms 100 mm. long and cirri xxxii., 10 mm. to 14 mm. long ; tliree 

 of the specimens are peculiar in having the centrodorsal very 

 small with the dorsal pole only 2 mm. in diameter, though bear- 

 ing the usual number of cirri. Watson's Bay, Port Jackson — 

 Five specimens ; one has twenty-two arms 110 mm. long and cirri 

 xix., 18-20, 12 mm. long ; another has thirty-one arms and cirri 

 xlvi., 14 mm. long, and a third has twenty-eight arms and cirri 

 xlii. Cape Hawke, 25-28 fathoms — Two specimens. Bottle and 

 Glass Rocks, Port Jackson — -Two specimens with the centrodorsal 

 very small as in the tliree described from Port Jackson. Aus- 

 tralia — One small specimen. Tasmania — Two specimens. No 

 locality — One fine specimen with twenty-five arms 130 mm. long. 



Additional Australian Records. — King George Sound ; Port 

 Phillip ; Port Jackson ; Watson's Bay, Port Jackson, " common 

 under stones at low water." 



Distribution. — Confined to Southern Australia ; King George 

 Sound eastward along the southern coast of Australia, including 

 Tasmania, and northward on the east coast to Port Jackson. 



Remarks. — It would seem as if this species offered an 

 exceptional opportunity for some one interested in embryology and 

 comparative development who wishes to open up a new field. No 

 question in the whole Echinoderm subject is of such interest as 

 the comparative development of the Crinoids, and in this line of 

 work no study is more important than a detailed investigation of 

 the life history of some one of the Comasteridae. We have learned 

 a great deal from the study of the development of Antedon, but 

 there is much that we do not know yet and many of our ideas 

 based upon that genus undoubtedly need a thorough revision in 

 the light of new data acquired from a study of some other forms. 



The type specimen of this species, preserved in the Paris 

 Museum, is a small, but characteristic one. 



Specific Group VANIA, nov. 



Validia, 1909, A. H. Clark, Vidensk. Medd. fra den naturhist. 



Forening i Kobenhavn, 1909, p. 142 (Conialula rotalaria, 



Lamarck, 1816). 

 Differential Characters. — The cirri are few, small and weak, 

 irregularly disposed, or entirely absent ; some or all of the II Br 

 series are 2 ; the remaining division series have a majority of 4 

 (3 -f 4), a minority 2, the two types being irregular in the manner 

 of their occurrence. 



