10 BULLETIN 75, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



a considerable temperature range; all occur in water colder than 

 40° F., and seven were found in water below 32°, yet six live in 

 water warmer than 50°. These facts all go to show that we have here 

 a group of hardy, adaptable species, able to live and apparently to 

 prosper under very diverse conditions. Such a group may appro- 

 priately be spoken of as the Oceanic fauna. To this fauna may well 

 be assigned four other species, whose range is more discontinuous 

 than that of the species just discussed, but which probably belong, 

 nevertheless, to the same group. Two of the four have already been 

 referred to in connection with the list of species joining the Honshu 

 and Bering faunas. In placing them in the Oceanic fauna I am, of 

 course, influenced by their known distribution outside of the North 

 Pacific area. 



Ophiura flagellata. From 54° 33' 3(/' N. to 9° 3' 24^' N. on the coast of India; 53 to 



876 fathoms. 

 Ophiura irrorata. From 55° 23' N. to New South Wales, 600 to 2,200 fathoms. 



The other two species to be added to the Oceanic fauna are — 



Ophierniis adspersus. From 33° 25' 20" N. to Cape Comorin, India, to 10° 21' S. be- 

 tween Sumba and Timor, and to the Galapagos Islands; 244 to 1,997 fathoms. 



Amphiura diomedese. From 36° 46' N. to 9° 3' 24" S., between Sumba and Flores and 

 to Galera Point, Ecuador; 39 to 1,573 fathoms. 



To the Oceanic fauna then, eighteen species are here assigned. 



There are four species (Amphiura acrystata, Ami)Modia macraspis, 

 AmpJiioplus TiexacantJius, Ophionereis euryhracJiiplax), which are 

 reported from off the coast of California or Washington, although 

 most of the specimens were taken in Japanese waters. In the 

 present condition of our knowledge it is impossible to give the exact 

 faunal position of these species, but I am inclined to consider them as 

 members of the Honshu fauna, whose range as far as American waters 

 is open to some doubt. 



An interesting group of eight species occurs on the coasts of Wash- 

 ington, Oregon, and California, and has not been found north of the 

 fifty-second parallel. One of these (OpMopteris papulosa) is a 

 southern species which barely enters the region included in this 

 report.'^ Of the others, four previoush^ unknown species were taken 

 at only a single station each and may perhaps also be southern species. 

 They are — 



Ophiomusium muUispinum. AmphiUmna pentacantha. 



Amphiodia strongyloplax. Ophiocynodus corynetes. 



The three remainmg species, which were taken at a number of 

 stations and seem to be characteristic of the region, are — 



Ophiopholis longispina. Ophiacantha diplasia. 



Ophiopholis bakeri. 



« Although Ophiothrix spiculata is recorded in this report from Alaska it, too, is un- 

 questionably a southern species. The Alaskan record is almost certainly a mistake. 



