OPHIUROIDEA 213 



resembles that of Amphiura filiformis so much that it cannot be 

 distinguished with certainty ? Its breeding season would apj^ear 

 W be in the fall of the year. 



In British seas this species has been recorded from various places 

 round the south, west, north, and east coast, from Plymouth and 

 Cape Clear to off Dogger Bank ; also from the Lousy Bank ; in 

 places, at least, common ; the depths recorded are 9-ca. 1000 m. 

 It is elsewhere distributed from the Trondhjemf jord to the Sound 

 in Scandinavian seas, and along the European coasts south to 

 the Mediterranean, the west coast of N. Africa, and the Azores. 

 It does not occur at the N. American coasts. Bathymetrical 

 distribution, ca. 10-1200 m. 



2. AmpJiiura hellis Lyman, var. tritonis Hoyle.^ 



Disk covered on both sides with small scales, coarser and radi- 

 ally elongated near the radial shields, which are wedge-shaped, 

 about four times as long as wide, separated by one or tw^o series 

 of elongate scales. Dorsal arm plates transversely oval, but with 

 a proximal angle. Ventral plates with outer edge rounded. 

 Three, or at the base of arm' 4, straight, tapering, bluntly- 

 pointed arm spines. Tw^o broad, scale-Uke tentacle scales, set 

 at a right angle to each other. Mouth shields rounded triangular, 

 with a conspicuous outer lobe. Adoral shields triangular, not 

 joining adorally to the mouth shield. Outer mouth papilla 

 conical ("'' diamond - shaped "). Colour j^ello wish - grey, with 

 five rather indefinite radial markings on dorsal surface of disk. 

 Diameter of disk 12 mm., arms ca. nine times that length. 



Only a single specimen known, dredged by the " Triton " at 

 59° 40' N., 7° 21' W., ca. 930 m. 



The t}^ical Amphiura bellis Lyman, originally known from 

 off Fiji and Japan (" Challenger "), has been found off the coast 

 of Portugal, 627-1290 m. (" TaUsman "). 



^ A figure of part of the ventral side of disk of this Aniphiurid was given 

 by Hoyle in Proc. R. Soc. Edinb. xii. PL VII. 1. The figure not being very 

 satisfactory, it has been thought better not to reproduce it here. In the 

 description (p. 716) it is not mentioned whether the primary disk plates 

 are distinct or not. Koehler (1895), and more recently H. L. Clark, regard 

 this form as a separate species, and refer it to the genus Paramphiura. The 

 present author cannot agree with Koehler and Clark in this view, but must 

 regard it as a typical Amphiura. Whether it may perhaps represent a 

 separate species cannot be decided until more material is at hand ; but it 

 really seems very close to A. hellis Lyman, if not simply identical with 

 that species. 



