Comatulella

Summers, Mindi M., Messing, Charles G. & Rouse, Greg W., 2017, The genera and species of Comatulidae (Comatulida: Crinoidea): taxonomic revisions and a molecular and morphological guide, Zootaxa 4268 (2), pp. 151-190 : 168-169

Comatulella AH Clark, 1911a

Table 1

Type species. Comatula brachiolata Lamarck, 1816 .

Diagnosis. Mouth excentric in fully developed individuals; ten arms only; centrodorsal circular, thick; cirri always present in one crowded, irregular row; IBr2 series and first two brachials of undivided arms united by cryptosynarthry; syzygy at 3+4; distalmost pinnule comb on P2; comb teeth confluent with outside edge of pinnule, blunt triangular; stout pinnules lacking ambulacral groove and able to coil aborally roughly alternating with distal pinnules.

Distribution. Southern Australia from Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, to Perth, Western Australia. Depth range: 14–18 m (AH Clark 1931; Rowe & Gates 1995).

Remarks. Comatulella brachiolata can be distinguished from other comatulids by gonads on the arms near the pinnule articulations instead of on the pinnules, and by the ungrooved stout distal pinnules roughly alternating with unmodified pinnules (AH Clark 1931; Hoggett & Rowe, 1986).

PHANOGENINI White and Messing, 2001