

Report on the Ophiuroidea 



Collected by the Bahama Expedition from the University of 



Iowa in 1893. 



By Professor A. E. Verrill, of Yale University. 



The Bahama Expedition obtained about 66 species of 

 Ophiuroidea, among which there are many species of great 

 interest and several that were previously unknown. 



In former years the same region had been very extensively 

 explored by the various dredging expeditions made by Mr. 

 Alexander Agassiz, in the Coast Survey Steamer "Blake," 

 and by other earlier government expeditions. The various 

 collections thus obtained were very fully worked up and the 

 numerous new species were described by Mr. Theodore Ly- 

 man in the publications of the Museum of Comparative Zool- 

 ogv.* The Challenger Expedition added a few species from 

 the same region, which are included in Mr. Lyman's final 

 report on the Challenger Ophiuroidea (Vol. V, 1882). 



Therefore, it was not to have been expected that many 

 new discoveries would be made, in that region, by a compar- 

 atively small number of dredgings, and with a far less elabor- 

 ate equipment. Hence the number of new forms obtained 

 by the Bahama Expedition is rather surprising. 



*Bulletin of the Mus. Comp. Zoology, Vol. I, No. 10, p. 309, 1869; Vol. 

 V, No. 9, p. 217, 1878; Vol. X, No. 6, 1883; also Vol. V, No. 7, p. 67, 1878, 

 and Vol. VI, No. 2, 1879, (Challenger Coll.) 



Illust. Catal. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. I, No. I. 1865; Vol. VI, 1871; 

 Vol. VIII, No. II, 1875. 



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