Of the Order Ophiuridae. It;, 



Sp. Pectinura vestita, nov. sp., Forbes. Tab. XIII. fig. i—~. 



P. disco orbiculari, radiis convexiusculis ; squamis superioribns rotundatis : 



lateralibus 8-spiniferis. 

 Lat. disc. ^ unc. 



Of the genus Ophiura. three species inhabit the ^Egean Sea, O. texturata, 

 O. albida, and a very interesting species, which I propose to call O. aby.ssi- 

 cola. The first of these has long been recorded as a native of the Mediter- 

 ranean. In the Eastern Mediterranean it is exceedingly scarce, and I only 

 met with two examples. The Ophiura albida, which was long confounded 

 with it, is much more common, almost as much so as on the coasts of Britain . 

 I dredged it in various depths, from 15 to 50 fathoms, in many localities, 

 between Cerigo and Rhodes. The Ophiura abyssicola is remarkable as an 

 inhabitant of deeper water than any recorded Starfish. It lives on a bottom 

 of soft white mud abounding in Foraminifera, which animals probably con- 

 stitute its food, in between 150 and 200 fathoms water. The disc is round 

 and covered with rosulated scales, those in the centre largest, the other! 

 very small. Opposite the origin of each ray are two large plates or scales of 

 the same form as those in O. albida. The rays are narrow and tapering, and 

 are five and a half times as long as the body is broad : they are inserted into 

 notches in the disc, but by no means so deeply as in the two former species. 

 There are two pairs of pectinated scales clasping the origin of each ray, the 

 upper having five teeth, the lower about nine. The upper arm-plates are 

 quadrangular and carinate, those of the sides quadrangular, and uniting in- 

 feriorly, almost obliterating the lenticular inferior ray-plates : each lateral 

 plate bears a tubercle and three spines, which are longer than the plates to 

 which they are articulated. The colour of this pretty Starfish is pinkish- 

 gray. 



A comparison of the characters of this new Ophiura with those of its de- 

 scribed allies enables us to revise the definition of the genus. The main 

 character is the great size of the ovarian plates, which encroach upon the 

 body beneath between the origins of the arms. This arises from the primary 

 and accessory plates being soldered into one, and from the large development 

 of the accessories. In the other genera they are very small, and quite sepa- 



VOL. XIX. U 



