Comatella stelligera ( Carpenter, 1888 )

Mohammednowshad, B., Idreesbabu, K. K., Parameswaran, Usha V., Messing, Charles G. & Sureshkumar, S., 2020, The Shallow-water Crinoid Fauna of Lakshadweep Atolls, North-western Indian Ocean, Zootaxa 4789 (1), pp. 247-265 : 251

Comatella stelligera ( Carpenter, 1888)

Actinometra stelligera Carpenter, 1888:308 –09, pl. 5 (figs. 5a–d), pl. 58 (figs. 1, 2).

Actinometra maculata Carpenter, 1888:307 , pl. 5 (figs. 1 a–d), pl. 55 (fig. 2).

Comatella maculata: A.H. Clark, 1908b:207 ; 1931:92, 112–188, pl. 20 (fig. 50); A.M. Clark & Rowe, 1971:15; Messing, 1998a:189-190.

Comatella stelligera: A.H. Clark, 1908b:207 ; 1931:92, 98–112, pl. 4 (figs.6–9); A.M. Clark & Rowe, 1971:15; Messing, 1998a:188–190; Summers et al. 2017:157 (fig. 1E–F), 158 (fig. 2).

Material examined.— None in this study. Previously reported from Kavaratti I. ( Sastry & Satyanarayana, 2009).

Diagnosis.— A species of Comatella with up to 50 arms (usually 20–40); cirri with up to 26 segments, to 25 mm long. IIIBr series, when present, usually exterior. Rays radiating in a single, flat plane (A.H. Clark, 1931; A.M. Clark & Rowe, 1971; Messing, 1998a, 2001).

Distribution.— From Lakshadweep and the Maldives in the west to Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa in the east, including ANI, and from tropical Australia (Houtman Abrolhos, WA, to Port Jackson, NSW) to Chuuk Atoll, Micronesia, Ogasawara Is., and southern Japan ( Gislén, 1940; A.H. Clark, 1931; A.M. Clark & Rowe, 1971; Rowe & Gates, 1995; Kogo, 1998, 2002; Sastry & Satyanarayana, 2009, and this study). Depth range: shoreline to 32 m (possibly 73 m or greater) (A.H. Clark, 1931).