Comissia Clark, 1909a

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 : 170-171

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