The genera and species of Comatulidae (Comatulida: Crinoidea): taxonomic revisions and a molecular and morphological guide
Author
Summers, Mindi M.
Author
Messing, Charles G.
Author
Rouse, Greg W.
text
Zootaxa
2017
4268
2
151
190
journal article
33045
10.11646/zootaxa.4268.2.1
e114acb7-3683-4094-a53f-c9bc7ed84353
1175-5326
580173
0742D287-B82C-4014-A6AC-C357F259D5D7
Comissia
Clark, 1909a
Table 1
Type species.
Comissia luetkeni
AH
Clark, 1909a
.
Other included taxa (9).
Comatulides dawsoni
McKnight, 1977a
;
Comissia gracilipes
AH
Clark, 1912a
;
Comissia hispida
AH
Clark, 1911b
;
Comissia ignota
var.
minuta
Gislén, 1922
;
Comissia norfolkensis
McKnight, 1977b
;
Comissia parvula
AH
Clark, 1912a
;
Comissia peregrina
var.
magnifica
Gislén, 1922
;?
Leptonemaster venustus
AH
Clark, 1909a
;?
Comatulides decumatilos
McKnight, 1977a
.
Diagnosis.
Mouth central in fully developed individuals; always ten arms; centrodorsal circular, thin, cirri in 1–2 rows; IBr2 series united by synarthry; first syzygy at 3+4 on arms arising from IBr; distal intersyzygial interval 2–4, mainly 3; distalmost pinnule comb on P1–P6; comb teeth confluent with outside edge of pinnule.
Distribution.
Tropical and temperate Indo-western Pacific from the Great Barrier Reef,
Australia
, west to
Sri
Lanka
, east to
Bay of Plenty
,
New
Zealand
, and north to Sagami Bay,
Japan
(AH
Clark 1931
; Hoggett & Rowe 1986;
Kogo & Fujita 2014
;
McKnight 1977a
,
b
;
Rowe & Gates 1995
). Depth range:
29–
984 m
.
Comissia venustus
occurs in the western Atlantic from the southeastern
Gulf
of
Mexico
and Bahama Islands to
Trinidad
(
Meyer
et al.
1978
). The great majority of records are from depths of ~
100–
400 m
. Only
C. luetkeni
has been reported consistently from <
100 m
.
Rowe & Gates (1995)
give a depth range of
2–113 m
for this species, citing AH
Clark (1931)
and HL
Clark (1946)
, but these sources give a depth range for this species of
29–
135 m
. Based on the description, specimens attributed to
C. magnifica
by
Kogo (1998)
and collected in
6.1–6.2 m
off
Okinawa
are most likely
Alloeocomatella pectinifera
.
Comissia norfolkensis
and
C. gracilipes
all occur at depths greater than
400 m
(AH
Clark 1931
;
McKnight 1977a
,
b
). Hoggett & Rowe (1986) give a maximum depth for the genus of
1280 m
, but this appears to be an error.
Remarks.
Despite revisions by Hoggett & Rowe (1986) and Messing (2001) that removed several species and redefined the genus,
Comissia
remains diagnosed by generalized features and may still not be a clade. Therefore,
C.
(formerly
Leptonemaster
)
venustus
, the sole western Atlantic species, is included here tentatively. Likewise,
Comatulides decumatilos
is provisionally placed here following Hoggett and Rowe (1986), as it has oral combs similar to those of
C. luetkeni
and different from those of monotypic
Comatulides decameros
; however, the
holotype
lacks a disc, so its mouth position is unknown. Several other species previously placed in
Comissia
with various degrees of uncertainty (Hoggett & Rowe 1986; Messing 2001) are discussed below as taxa of uncertain status.
Comissia norfolkensis
, the only species available to us that was amenable to genetic analysis, occurs well outside the central East Indian region where most species have been collected and thus may not be representative of the genus.
COMASTERINI
AH
Clark, 1908a