ma 



THE 



VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



w 



ZOOLOGY. 



KEPORT on the Ophiuroidea di-edged by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 



1873-76. By Theodore Lyman. 



INTEODUCTION. 



This monograph attempts to describe and classify the Ophiurid^, or Brittle-Stars, and 

 the AsTROPHYTiD^, or Branching-Stars, collected during the cruise of the Challenger. 

 Seeing that the twenty new genera and the one hundred and sixty-seven new species 

 formed a large proportion of those known, and considering that there were also 

 collected not a few of the old species, I deemed it wise to add the names of aU others 

 previously described, and to arrange them under their genera with proper references and 

 explanations. Thus, by the addition of a few pages, the work has become a handbook of 

 the two famdies treated of. 



First comes the descriptive portion, wherein are given descriptions of the new 

 Ophiuridse arranged in their three gToups, and of the Astrophytidse, both branching and 

 simple-armed. There are added, from time to time, such anatomical observations as I 

 have been able to make. Then follow tables of distribution, geographical, bathymetrical, 

 and thermal, with brief reflections on their indications. At the end is a note on fossil 

 species and their relations to those living. 



The anatomical parts spoken of are explained by frequent references to the plates. 

 Should the reader need more detaded information, he will find it in my Ophim'ida3 and 

 Astrophytidse Old and New,^ or in Dr Ludwig's Morphologische Studien an Echinoder- 

 men.* In order to understand a description, it is necessary to bear in mind that the 

 animal is supposed to have the mouth below ; then vertically, towards the roof of the 



^ Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, vol. iii., part 10, pp. 254 and 260. 



= Zeitschr. f. WissenschaftL Zoologie, vol. xxri., 1878, p. 241 ; vol. xxxiv., ISSO, pp. 1 and 57. 



(ZOOL. CHALL. EXP. PAET XIV. — 1882.) 1 



( .- 



