OPHIOLEPIDAE 



319 



As usual in this species the specimens are either covered with a sponge or with 

 Foraminifera. To the specimens from Bouvet Island (St. 456) a number of a Folliculina 

 are attached, both on the upper and under side of the disk and on the arms. 



The species has separate sexes and is evidently not viviparous. There are two to four 

 gonads on each side of the bursal slits ; the eggs are rather numerous, of moderate size, 

 ca. 0-3 mm. diameter, all ripening at the same time. The relatively large size of the eggs 

 rather suggests direct development, not through a typical Ophiopliiteus larva. This, of 

 course, is a mere suggestion. 



Ophiurolepis brevirima, n.sp. 



(Plate VIII, figs. 8-13) 



St. 170. 23. ii. 27. Off Cape Bowles, Clarence Island, 342 m. Several specimens. 

 St. 172. 26. ii. 27. Off Deception Island, South Shetlands, 525 m. i specimen. 

 St. 175. 2. iii. 27. Bransfield Strait, South Shetlands, 200 m. Several specimens. 



Diameter of disk up to ca. 20 mm. Arms at most slightly exceeding four times the 

 diameter of disk, but often scarcely as much as three times the diameter. 



In larger specimens the disk is usually rather conspicuously elevated, rising from the 

 edge at an angle of ca. 45°; but the middle part of the disk is flattened. The primary 



Fig. 37. ophiurolepis brevirima, n.sp. Part of oral side {a) and dorsal side (h). x6. 



plates are not conspicuous, or even at all discernible, except in the young specimens, and 

 even in these latter they are relatively small. All the plates of the dorsal side of the disk, 

 excepting the radial shields, rise into a low knob surrounded by concentric rings. The 

 radial shields are on the contrary smooth, and even usually somewhat sunken in the 

 middle ; they are oval, about half the length of the disk radius, separated by a column 

 of plates, the innermost one of which is generally the most conspicuous. In the ventral 

 interradii the most conspicuous plates are the genital scales, which leave only a rather 

 narrow median space, occupied by some smaller scales, one in the median line being 



