6 BULLETIN 75, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



nine genera; none of the species is identical with any taken at station 

 4893, bufsix of the genera are. 



The collections made at the stations in a given district indicate 

 that remarkably diversified ophiuran faunas exist in the North Pacific 

 Ocean under widely different conditions. The most diversified fauna, 

 as we might naturally expect, is that found in the subtropical Eastern 

 Sea, off Kagoshima Gulf, where, on August 16, thirty species were 

 taken at stations 4933-4939. These thirty species represefnted 

 twenty-one genera and every family except the Ophiocomidae, which, 

 however, doubtless occurs in the region; eighteen of the species and 

 one of tlie genera were previously unknown. Quite a different fauna 

 exists about the western end of the Aleutian chain of islands, where, 

 at stations 4781-4784, twenty-one species were found. Here, how- 

 ever, there are only ten genera represented and the families Ophio- 

 dermatidse, Ophiocomidae, Ophiothricida^, and Ophiomyxidse are 

 wholly wanting. Thirteen of the species were previously unknown. 

 Sagami Bay demonstrated anew the extraordinary richness of its 

 marine fauna by revealing twenty-nine species of ophiurans at sta- 

 tions 5085-5095, wdiile eleven other species were taken just outside 

 at stations 5083 and 5084. But these forty species represent only 

 sixteen genera and nineteen of the forty were previously know^n. 

 The fauna of Sagami Bay is not therefore quite so diversified as that 

 off Kagoshima Gulf. 



In the descriptions of the new species I have thought it better to 

 give an estimate as to the length of the arms, even though they may 

 be all broken in the type-specimen, than to leave that important 

 point in doubt. Where the measurement is given without qualifica- 

 tion it may be understood to represent the actual measurement of 

 an unbroken, normal arm, but when the word "about" precedes the 

 figures given, it indicates that the measurement is based on a careful 

 calculation from data furnished by other specimens. The addition 

 of the word "probably" shows that satisfactory data for calculation 

 were lacking and the measurement is therefore quite open to ques- 

 tion. The number of arms is five in all cases, unless there is direct 

 assertion of some other number being present. 



The type-specimens of all the new species described are in the 

 collection of the U. S. National Museum, Washington, but cotypes 

 of more than two-thirds of them are in the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, Cambridge. 



For the pleasure and profit of studying this great collection I 

 desire to extend my sincere thanks to the Hon. George M. Bowers 

 and Dr. H. M. Smith of the Bureau of Fisheries, and to Dr. Eichard 

 Rathbun of the U. S. National Museum. For the collaboration of 

 an excellent artist. Miss Violet Dandridge, and for many other 



