Comaster nobilis ( Carpenter, 1884 )

Kogo, Ichizo, Fujita, Toshihiko & Kubodera, Tsunemi, 2019, Shallow-water Comatulids (Echinodermata: Crinoidea) from Ambon and Lombok Islands, Indonesia, Species Diversity 24, pp. 229-246 : 233-234

Comaster nobilis ( Carpenter, 1884)

Actinometra nobilis Carpenter, 1884: 55 ; 1888: 336, pl. 65.

Comanthus nobilis —A. H. Clark 1909a: 395.

Comanthus (Comanthina) nobilis —A. H. Clark 1909b: 143.

Comanthina nobilis — Hoggett and Rowe 1986: 126; Rowe et al. 1986: 243, fig. 8b; Rowe and Gates 1995: 142; Kogo 1998: 31, fig. 26; Messing 1998b: 189 (table); MarshallCrossland and Price 1999: 25; Lane et al. 2000: 475 (table).

Comaster nobilis — Messing 1998a: 206 (list); Pilcher and Messing 2001: 16 (table); Kogo 2002: 9; Kogo and Fujita 2005: 331; Mekhova and Britayev 2012: 917, fig. 7.

Comanthina schlegelii (not of Carpenter, 1881)— Reichensperger 1913: 88; A. H. Clark 1931: 466 (part), pl. 54 fig. 159, pl. 55 figs 160, 161; Gislén 1938b: 9.

Comanthina schlegeli (not of Carpenter, 1881)— Utinomi and Kogo 1965: 265; Liao and A. M. Clark 1995: 18 (part), fig. 8.

Material examined. 6 specimens. Ambon Is. NSMT E-8117 (1 specimen), Pombo I ., 10 m, November 28, 1992; NSMT E-8148 (1), Latuhalat , 10 m, December 1, 1992; NSMT E-8161 (1), Silale, 15 m, December 2, 1992 . Lombok Is. NSMT E-8205 (1), Gili Air I ., February 3, 1994; NSMT E-8220 (1), E-8244 (1), Gili Air I ., February 5, 1994.

Description. Centrodorsal small, pentagonal or stellate in aboral view, 4–5 mm across, up to 0.5 mm thick, with 0–16 small cirrus sockets in 1 aligned row. Cirri weak or absent, 0–XI, 14–16, up to 15 mm long; cirrals smooth without aboral spine. Radials trapezoidal, in contact laterally. IBr 2: Ibr 1 oblong, IBr 2 (axil) low pentagonal, both in contact laterally. IIBr 4(3+4), rarely 2: IIbr 1 in contact laterally, IIbr 2 free laterally. IIIBr usually inner side 4(3+4) and outer 2 (‘2-4- 4-2 order’). IVBr and VBr all 4(3+4). Interradial area with thin irregular polygonal perisomic plates. Arms 66–109, 80– 125 mm long. First syzygy at br 3+4. PII longest, 20 mm long, of about 55 segments with distal comb of 7–10 teeth confluent with inner edge of pinnulars; 3–5 pinnulars with paired teeth of same size at both edges; proximal 2–3 teeth transverse. Pinnule combs to P 5, rarely to P 6 –P 10.

Remarks. Hoggett and Rowe (1986) distinguished this species from C. schlegelii . On the other hand, Messing and Tay (2016) restored this species to synonymy under C. schlegelii , following A. H. Clark (1931). These two species are distinguishable by number of arms ( Carpenter 1884: 55), and by cirrus number, comb distribution, and color pattern ( Rowe et al. 1986: 244). We treated here C. nobilis and C. schlegelii as separate species.

Distribution. Southern Vietnam ( Mekhova and Britayev 2012); Sumatra ( MarshallCrossland and Price 1999); western, northern, and eastern Australia, Coral Sea ( Rowe et al. 1986); Sulu Sea, Papua New Guinea ( Messing 1998b); Borneo, South China Sea ( Lane et al. 2000); Japan ( Kogo 1998, 2002; Pilcher and Messing 2001). Depth range: 8–92 m ( Rowe et al. 1986).