OPHIOLEPIDAE 



303 



were found to have the gonads purely female ; one specimen of 5 mm. has the gonads of 

 purely male character, in another specimen of the same size the gonads contain only 

 young eggs. There is thus no sign that the species is a protandric hermaphrodite. 



I have found two to three young ones in a bursa. They are rather robust, with only 

 three short, thick arm joints, when ready to leave the mother. The ventral interradii are 

 occupied almost wholly by the adoral shields, the buccal shield still lying on the dorsal 

 side, which is otherwise covered only by the large primary plates. It is an interesting 

 fact that the second mouth tentacle is here still lying wholly outside the mouth slits ; the 

 mouth papillae have not yet been formed (Fig. 31). 



Fig. 31. Ophiozonella falklandica, n.sp. Young, i, Dorsal side, 15. 2, Oral side, X30. a, Adoral 

 plates, b. Buccal plate. Note that the tentacle scale at the first ventral plate has disappeared in the adult. 



Ophiozonella alba (Liitken and Mortensen) ('Albatross' Ophiuroids, pi. vi, figs. 7-9) 

 would seem to be the nearest relation of the present species, differing from it mainly in 

 its longer arm spines, and in the arm joints being more constricted. Also the first 

 ventral plate is characteristically different — much narrower than in O. falklandica. 



Ophiozonella megaloplax, n.sp. 



St. 939. 18. viii. 32. 35° 50' S, 173° 28' E, Cook Strait, New Zealand, 87 m. i specimen. 



Diameter of disk 3 mm., arms ca. 7 mm. Dorsal side of disk covered with few large 

 plates among which there is only an occasional small scale. No regular rosette of 

 primary plates, the central plate can scarcely be made out. The radial shields are con- 

 tiguous, only a single small scale wedged in between them proximally ; a column of two 

 broad scales in the interradii. The ventral interradii almost wholly covered by a single 

 large plate joining the small, triangular buccal shield ; beside this plate there are only 

 the genital scales and a couple of plates distally. Adoral plates broadly joining within 

 and with a conspicuous outer lobe separating the first lateral plate from the buccal 

 shield. Four or five broad, square mouth papillae, the outermost one the largest. First 

 ventral plate rhombic, merely in contact with the second ; the following ventral plates 



D.XII 14 



