118 



BULLETIN 75, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



easily broken, most of the specimens have the appearance of being 

 unusually short-armed; this appearance is added to by the habit the 

 animal has of coiling the arms vertically, a process by which the 

 attenuate tips are protected but also concealed. Upper arm plates 

 narrowly transverse elliptical in outline, nearly three times as wide 

 as long at base of arm but becoming relatively narrower and longer; 

 distal to each plate is a series of six to eight large squarish granules, 

 placed together and not extending proximally along the sides of the 

 upper arm plates. Interbrachial areas below covered by numerous 

 short thorny stumps. Oral shields commonly wider than long, 

 rounded laterally but with a distal angle. Adoral plates oblong, 

 short, and wide. Oral papilhv spine-like but rather stout, in a cluster 

 of four to six, just proximal to adoral plates. Teeth numerous, in 

 about a dozen horizontal series, the lowest of which contain several 

 small teeth that might be called tooth papilla 1 ; the whole group 

 makes a long, narrow, vertical or oblique oval, widest near the bottom. 



FIG. 44. OPHIOPHOLIS JJRACHYACTIS. X 4.5. a, FROM ABOVE; 6, FROM BELOW; c , RIDE VIEW OF TWO 



ARM JOINTS NEAR DISK. 



Genital slits and scales large. First under arm plate very small and 

 indistinct; succeeding plates oblong, nearly twice as wide as long, 

 separated from each other by spaces nearly as wide as themselves. 

 Side arm plates moderate, not nearly meeting either below or above, 

 the distal margin elevated into a conspicuous spine-bearing ridge; 

 each plate carries seven short, thick, pointed spines, the middle ones 

 longest (about equal to joint), the uppermost shortest. Tentacle 

 pores large with a single tentacle scale. Color (dried from alcohol), 

 yellow, cream color, or dirty white. 



Localities. Albatross station 3698, off Manazuru Zaki, Japan, 153 

 fathoms, green mud, volcanic ashes, sand, 7 specimens; station 4833, 

 off Ando Zaki, Japan, lat. 36 13' 40" N.; long. 135 56' 30" E., 79 

 fathoms, dark-gray sand, rocks, bottom temperature 53.2, 2 speci- 

 mens; station 4892, Eastern Sea, lat. 32 27' 30" N. ; long. 128 33' E., 

 181 fathoms, gray sand, broken shells, rocks, bottom temperature 

 50.2, 7 specimens; station 4900, Eastern Sea, lat. 32 28' 50" N.; 



