The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. .'il'.i 



ASTROCLADUS EURYALE. 



Asterias enryale Retzius, 1783. K. Vet. Akad. Hand., vol. 4, p. '243, 

 Astrodadus euryale Doderlein, 1911. Japan. Euryalae, p. 28. 

 Gorgonocephalus verrucosus Lyman, 1882. CHALLENGER Oph., p. 262. 

 L. Agassiz, 1839. Mem. Soc. Nat. Hist, Nenchatel, vol. 2, no. 8, pis. 1-3. 



This very line species, with only one exception known the longest 

 of any member of the family, seems to have a very limited range 

 as it has not yet been found anywhere except in the vicinity of 

 southernmost Africa. The PIETER FAURE collection contains five 

 specimens, of which two are fine adults, 60 and 65 mm. across the 

 disk, and the remainder are about half as large. 



P.F. 18381. Flesh Point, N. 6 miles. Depth and bottom unknown. 

 3 specimens ; small adults. 



False Bay. 2 specimens ; tine adults. 



OPHIACANTHIDAE. 



This large and cosmopolitan family is very poorly represented in 

 the seas about South Africa. Only three of thirty-three genera 

 occur and each of these has but one representative. The genus 

 Ophiacantha with more than 125 valid species was not hitherto 

 known from the region but the PIETER FAURE has found a very 

 characteristic species at a considerable number of stations. The 

 three South African ophiacanthids are readily distinguished from 

 each other as follows. 



Key to the South African Species of Ophiacanthidae. 



Radial shields small and nearly or quite separated ; outermost oral papilla not 

 wide and operculiform. 



Disk closely covered with granules and a few, more spiniform grains ; upper 



arm-plates large and in contact at base of arm Ophiacantha nerthep&ila. 



Disk scales evident, each with one rough-pointed, thick, short cylindrical 



spinelet; upper arm-plates small and widely separated 



Ophiomitrella corynephora. 



Radial shields relatively large and broadly in contact ; outermost oral papilla wide 

 and operculiform . Ophiothamnus remotus. 



OPHIACANTHA NERTHEPSILA *, sp. nov. 

 Plate XIX. Figs 3, 4. 



Disk 7 mm. in diameter; arms 25 mm. long. Disk covered with 

 scales which, except around margin, are completely concealed by a 



* vigbt = below + r|'i.Ao stript bare, in reference to the bare interbrachial 

 areas below. 



