110 OPHIUROIDEA. 



Oph. (1882) p. 77; Fjelstrup, Zool, Dan. Pigh. (1890) p. 24, 

 pi. ii. fig. 4. 



A rather small species with somewhat delicate arms. Covering- 

 scales of disk imbricated, coarse, irregular in shape. Radial shields 

 small, inconspicuous, very irregular and inconstant in shape. Six 

 teeth ; mouth-papillae not numerous — three or four rather wide 

 ones in each jaw-plate. Mouth-plate short, cordiform ; mouth- 

 plates hand-like. Bursal slits well-marked. Notches in disk not 

 very deep ; arm-comb formed by a few quite short spines. Arms 

 flat, upper plates large at base and regularly hexagonal, proximal 

 sides diminish more distally ; side arm-plates meet below, but 

 lower arm-plates longer than in 0. ciliaris ; arm-spines usually 

 three, the uppermost the longest but it is quite short. A single 

 tentacle-scale. 



Colour when dried white, or banded, spotted, or mottled with 

 grey, brown, or red. 



E= 22; 16. 



r = 4 - 5 ; 3. 



Distribution. North Sea, North Atlantic (east and west) ; Arctic 

 Ocean. 



5. Ophiura signata. 



Ophioglvpha signata, Verrill, Amer. Journ. Sci. 8c Arts, xxiii. 



(1882) p. 220; Lyman, Proc. Roy. Soc. Ed. xi. (1883) p. 707 ; 



Hoyle, op. cit. xii. (1884) p. 715, pi. vii. figs. 4-8. 

 Ophioglvpha atlinis, Verrill, non IMtken. 



This species, which I have not seen, is thus described by Prof. 

 Yerrill : — 



" Disk varied in colour, rounded pentagonal, flattened above, or 

 even concave when dried ; covered with scales which form a distinct 

 rosette ; the dorsal surface is separated from the ventral by a mar- 

 ginal ridge, which becomes well-marked in dry specimens ; notches, 

 at the bases of the arms, slight, with an irregular and interrupted 

 series of minute spinules ; usually a short row of small, slender 

 spinules on each side of the notch, and a small, irregular, isolated 

 group in the middle, sometimes nearly obsolete, or represented by 

 only one or two small spinules in the larger specimens ; just below 

 these there is a similar small group on the middle of the first visible 

 arm-plate ; the second arm-plate sometimes bears, also, two or more 

 small spinules, but these never form a regular row. Disk-scales, 

 when living, obscured more or less by a thin skin ; the central scale 

 and two alternating circles of five each, surrounding it, at a little 

 distance, are round, dark-coloured, and distinctly larger than those 

 that intervene, which are small but distinct, and often form rather 

 regular circles around the larger scales ; in the interbrachial spaces, 

 near the edges, there are also larger scales ; radial shields irregular, 

 long-triangular, their edges more or less covered by small scales, and 

 separated by a rather wide wedge of small scales, in several rows. 



