ON THE 



ECHINODERMA 



FOUND OFP^ THE COAST OF vSOUTH AFRICA. 

 PART III. OPHIUROIDEA. 



BY 



F. JEFFREY BELL, M.A., 



Emeritus Professor in King's College, London. 



The number of species of Ophiuroids in tiic collection is not 

 large. What there are are not very interesting, with the excep- 

 tion of the new species of OpJiiozono and Ophiura, and the 

 addition of a good series of the hitherto rare Ophiothaniniis 

 reniotus, which was dredged by the " Challenger " in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Cape. Though Mr. Lyman has described a 

 large number of Ophiuroids from the .Southern sea-area, it would, 

 no doubt, be possible to find among the small specimens in the 

 present collection several that might well appear to be the " types 

 of. new species." But the study of Ophiuroids has suffered 

 enough from the description of isolated " species " based on one 

 or a few specimens ; this is notably the case with Ophiothrix, of 

 which a revision based on a long series ought to be made before 

 ever another species of it is described. 



I. ZYGOPHIUR^. 

 1. Ophioderma, wahlberg-i. 



O phioderma wahlbergi, M. Tr., Syst. Ast. (1842), p. 86. 



This species, which was originally described from Port Natal, 

 appears to be widely distributed, as there are examples in the 

 Museum from the Red Sea and from Puerto Cabello. 



