OPHIOLEPIDAE 



331 



St. WS 33. 2i.xii. 26. 54" 59' S, 35° 24' W, South Georgia, 130 m. i specimen. 

 St. WS 212. 30. V. 28. 49° 22' S, 60° 10' W, N of Falkland Islands, 242-249 m. i specimen. 

 St. MS 71. 9. iii. 26. East Cumberland Bay, South Georgia, 110-60 m. 7 specimens, and a 

 number of very young specimens, the identification of which is uncertain. 



There can be no doubt that these specimens are identical with the Ophiomastiis 

 rottmdus of G. A. Smith, likewise from South Georgia, though differing in some minor 

 points from Smith's description. 



This identity was fully confirmed by the examination of one of Smith's original 

 specimens, sent me for examination from the British Museum. Smith's statement that 

 there are three arm spines up to the seventh joint, then four, must be due to some mis- 



Fig. 44. Ophiura meridionalis (Lyman). Part of oral side (a), xi8; dorsal side (b), < 10. 

 Proximal part of arm, side view (c). x 18. 



take. My specimens, as well as the co-type sent me, have only three spines throughout; 

 only quite exceptionally have I occasionally found four spines on a joint. It may be 

 remarked that the upper spine is generally slightly the largest. 



Not being able to see from extant descriptions and figures how this Ophiomastiis 

 rotundus could be distinguished from Lyman's Ophioglypha meridionalis from off La 

 Plata, I applied to the British Museum for the loan of one of the original specimens of 

 O. meridionalis, which was very kindly granted me. The result of the comparison of the 

 two species is that there can be no doubt of their identity. As seen from Figs. 44, 45 

 there is some slight difference in the arrangement of the scales of the disk, the five 

 primary radial plates being replaced by an irregular circle of eight plates in the type 

 of meridionalis; this is, however, quite evidently an anomaly, and an exactly similar 

 arrangement may be found in some of the specimens from South Georgia, though by 

 far the majority of them have a regular circle of five primary radials. On the ventral 

 side and on the arms no difference exists between Ophiomastiis rotundus and Ophiura 



