OPHIUROIDEA OF THE BAHAMA EXPEDITION. 



J 9 



Ophiothrix violacea Mull. & Trosch., Syst., p. 115, 1842. Lyman, 111. 

 Cat. Mus. Comp. Zool., I. p. 164. Eutken Add. ad Hist. Oph., Pt. 

 II, p. 150, pi. IV, fig's. 1— Id, 1859. Verrill, Trans. Conn. Acad., I, p. 

 342, 366, 1868. 



Ophiura hispida Ayers, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., IV, p. 249, 1852. 

 Ophiothrix caribcea Eutken, Vid. Meddel., p. 14, Jan., 1856. 

 Ophiothrix kroyeri Eutken. Vid. Meddel., p. 15, Jan., 1856. 



Some examples from Bahia Honda have more numerous 

 long disk-spines than usual. The same peculiarity occurs in 

 specimens in the Museum of Yale University from Tortugas 

 and Rio Janeiro (Univ. Mus. of Copenhagen). From Bahia 

 Honda there are 19, partly young and half grown specimers 

 About one-half of these have a narrow white dorsal line on 

 the arm, bordered by a narrow dark line of the same color as 

 the general surface, but more intense; outside of these there 

 is a row of irregular, angular, whitish spots, separated by dark, 

 narrow, irregular, transverse lines; dark and light radial lines 

 extend inward from the base of the arms over the radial 

 shields. The rest agree with the variety violacea (M. & Tr.), 

 the back of the arms being irregularly marked and spotted 

 with whitish and dark grayish blue or brown, according to 

 the general color. Most of these specimens have a ground- 

 color of pale violet or grayish blue, but some are light brown; 

 in some the arms are broadly banded with a darker tint; the 

 under arm-plates are generally pale. 



A specimen from the Tortugas is dark violet-brown with a 

 dark brown disk and with a white dorsal stripe, but without 

 any bordering line of darker, and without white spots except 

 on the bases of the spines. The specimens from other locali- 

 ties are pale grayish or yellowish, sometimes with a pink 

 tint, with only indistinct dorsal markings. 



From Egg Key and from Station 68 there are a few young 

 examples (disk 3 mm. to 5 mm. in diameter) in which the 

 whole disk (including the radial shields) is closely covered 

 with minute rough thorny spinules, without any larger spines. 

 In the character of the arm-spines, in general coloration, and 



