OPHIUROIDEA 



163 



two of them, then three, and from about the first ramification 

 four ; on the outer branches they are somewhat hook-shaped. 

 Colour reddish or yellowish, sometimes almost white. Reaches 

 a size of ca. 9 cm. diameter of disk. 



In British seas this species is known from Cornwall, Shetland, 

 the Orknej^s, and Firth of Forth ; more recently it has been 

 recorded from the Lousy Bank and off S.W. Ireland (51° 37' N., 

 ir 56' W., 610-664 fms., " Helga "). It is elsewhere known 

 only from the Scandinavian seas, from Skagerrack to the Trond- 

 hjem Fjord, from depths of ca. 150-1200 m. 



2. Gorgonocephalus eucnemis (Miiller and Troschel). (Fig. 93, 2.) 

 (Syn. Astrophyton Malmgreni Danielssen and Koren.) 



Disk as a rule naked above and below, only the rather promi- 

 nent rib-like radial shields covered with a coat of small, round 

 granules. Ventral side of arms 

 wholly naked, covered only with 

 a smooth skin, through which 

 the ventral plates are fairly 

 distinctly seen, in dried speci- 

 mens. Spines, or tentacle scales, 

 simple, smooth (Fig. 93, 2), 2-4 as 

 in G. caput-medusce. Colour in 

 life brownish, radial shields some- 

 what lighter. Reaches about 

 the same size as G. cajmt-medusce, 

 or even somewhat more. 



From the British seas this 

 species is known from the cold 

 ("Porcupine", "Michael Sars " 

 from the warm area of the Faroe Channel (" Triton ") ; this, 

 however, is due to a misidentification of the following species.^ 



Gorg. eucnemis is widely distributed in the Arctic seas, to 

 Spitzbergen, the Kara Sea, and the Siberian Sea. It further occurs 

 in the Greenland seas, down to Cape Cod on the American coast. 

 Very probably the North Pacific Gorg. caryi Lyman is the same 

 species as eucnemis, which will then be circumpolar. Its bathy- 

 metrical distribution is ca. 15-1850 m. 



1 

 Fig. 93. — Arm spines (or tentacle 

 scales) of Gorgonocephalus 

 Lamarcki (I) and G. eucnemis 

 (2). 1. x22; 2. x 9. 



area of the Faroe 

 ; it has also been 



Channel 

 recorded 



^ It has also been recorded from the Lousy Bank, but most probably 

 this is likewise due to confusion with G. Lamarcki. 



