ANNOTATED LIST. 143 
Ophiolepis cincta. 
pe ee Troschel. 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 90.—Liitken. 1859. Add. ad Hist. Oph., pt. 2, p. 101, pl. ii, figs. 
a, 6b. 
This is a typical Indo-Pacific species, ranging from Mozambique to the Red Sea on 
the west, through the East Indian region, northward to Japan, southward to New South 
Wales, and eastward to the Society Islands. The Challenger found it in Torres Strait, 
and we took two nearly white specimens from under stones in sand at Thursday Island. 
We also found cincta at Badu, and at Mer it was quite common under rocks in sand, but 
all of the specimens found were small. No adults were seen. Lyman has given (1865, 
pl. m1, fig. 4) a very good colored figure of the adult under the name Ophiolepis garretti. 
The young are much less handsomely colored. 
Ophiolepis superba. 
Ophiura annulosa de Blainville. 1834. Man. Act., p. 244 (non Lamarck, 1816). 
Ophiolepis annulosa Liitken. 1859. Add. ad Hist. Oph., pt. 2, pl. ii, figs. 5a, 5b. 
Ophiolepis superba H. L. Clark. 1915a. Spolia Zeylanica, 10, p. 89. 
We found this very noticeable brittle-star both at Erub and Mer, under stones on 
sandy bottoms. It was taken by the Challenger in Torres Strait and by the Alert at Clair- 
mont, just south of the Torres Strait region, and at Port Darwin to the west. The known 
range is from Zanzibar to the Marshall Islands on the east, to the Riu Kiu Islands on the 
north, and to Turtle Island, West Australia, on the south. There is considerable diversity 
in the amount of black (or deep rich purple, in life) present in proportion to the deep buff, 
and occasionally specimens with no black at all occur. Herklots (1869, pl. rv, fig. 2) has 
given a very good colored figure of a specimen from Java. 
Ophioplocus imbricatus. 
Ophiolepis imbricata Miiller and Troschel. 1842. Sys. Ast., p. 93. 
Ophioplocus imbricatus Lyman. 1861. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 8, p. 76, footnote—Herklots. 1869. 
chinod. peintes d’aprés Nature, pl. v, fig. 1. 
(Plate 12, Figure 8; Plate 35, Figures 1 to 3.) 
Although this is also a wide-ranging Indo-Pacific species, it has not yet been found 
east of the Gilbert Islands. Yet a closely allied species occurs on the coast of California. 
It extends northward to the Riu Kiu Islands, but on the Japanese coast is replaced by a 
third species. Southward it reaches Shark Bay, West Australia, and the Murray Islands, 
but it is not known from the Thursday Island region nor from the Aru Islands. On the 
southern coast of Australia and in New Zealand waters are other members of the genus. 
At both Erub and Mer imbricatus is common, under rocks and coral fragments on the sand. 
Most individuals are light colored, one might say ‘‘sandy”’ (pl. 12, fig. 8), but one specimen 
found at Mer was so very different it was supposed to be another species. The disk was deep 
yellow, heavily marbled with dark, dusky olive (pl. 35, fig. 3). Comparison with material 
from the East Indies shows, however, that this diversity of color has little significance, 
as it intergrades with the unmarked condition through numerous connecting links. 
