OPHIUROIDEA OF THE BAHAMA EXPEDITION. 7 



Oyhiodcrma viresccns Eutken, Vid. Meddel., Jan. 1856, p. 9; Add. ad 

 Hist. Ophiur., Pt. II, p. 92, pi. I, fig-. 4. 



One of the specimens belongs to a variety with unusually 

 broad oral shields. The disk of this one is dark green, mot- 

 tled with lighter, in alcohol. 



Tortugas, fourteen examples. 



Common at the Florida Keys and throughout the West In- 

 dies, in shallow water. It extends southward to Bahia and 

 Pernambuco, Brazil; also to Colon, Bermuda, and Cumana. 



Ophiura pallida Verrill, s-p. nov. 



Plate II; Figure 4. 



Arms five, long and slender, Remarkable for the large, 

 broad, subcordate oral shields, crowded close to the bases of 

 the oral papillae; very small granulated lateral oral shields. 

 Two very small tentacle-scales, the inner not elongated. 

 Mouth-papillae rather large, mostly flat or truncated, the three 

 outer ones broadest. 



Arm-spines nine, rather slender, round and pointed, the 

 longest only little longer than the rest, equal to about one-half 

 the length of a side arm-plate. Under arm-plates longer and 

 narrower than in O. rnbicuuda. Upper ones short and broad, 

 not broken, outer end slightly emarginate. Radial shields 

 with a small, naked, distal portion, widely separated, regular- 

 ly ovate. Notch at the bases of the arms angular, including 

 three dorsal arm-plates. On the sides of the arms, at their 

 bases and along the genital slits, are many small, naked 

 scales. The disk is elsewhere covered with very minute 

 granules. 



The color of the arms, in alcohol, is pale brownish yellow 

 or yellowish white, banded with a darker shade of yellowish 

 brown; the disk is yellowish white; radial shields like the 

 arms; beneath, the disk and arm-plates are white. The 

 diameter of the disk of one of the larger specimens is 17 mm.; 

 length of arms, from mouth, 90 mm. 



