i-:ciiin<ijii:i:m \ i\. 



L39 



10. Opliiocoma brevipes. 

 Peters, Archie filr Natur. 1852, p. 85 ; see Lyman, p. 27. 



Mr. Lyman (Prel. List, p. 27) gives as synonyms of this, his own 

 O. insvlaria (about which there will, I suppose, be no dispute), the 

 0. ternispina of Martens, an unnamed Bpecimen of which, from 

 the island of Mauritius, has been for many years in the collection of 

 the British Museum and has for a long time been a source of much 

 disquiet to myself (I am now persuaded thai this is a specimen to 

 which Dr. von Martens woidd have given the name ternispina), 

 Opliiocoma variegata and 0. brevispinosa of E. A. Smith, from the 

 island of Rodriguez. I do not know that a more western locality 

 than the island just named has ever been recorded by a zoologist ; 

 at any rate. Dr. llaaeke did not detect the species among the Ophi- 

 urids collected by Prof. Mobius in the island of Mauritius*, unless 

 he has been, as is possible, misled by the definition of 0. squamata 

 given by M idler and Troschel ; the three or four lateral spines, the 

 two tentacle-scales, and the square markings on the upper arm- 

 plates might deceive a hasty nomenclator, but they could not, I 

 think, mislead any one who refers to the second edition of Lamarck 

 (vol. iii. 1840), p. 225, where he will find references to the plates 

 of Link andO. F. M tiller. Although the species there figured ic 

 regarded by the editors as distinct from 0. squamata, the resemblanco 

 between such an Ophiurid as this Opliiocoma and the Qphioihrix 

 pentaphyllum figured by the two just-mentioned naturalists, is so 

 very slight that we are forbidden from supposing that the Opliiura 

 squamata, Lamk. ( Opliiocoma squamata, M. & Tr.), is a near ally of 

 an Ophiothrix or Ojihiotliri.c-like form. 



The variations exhibited by this very widely distributed species 

 are indeed remarkable. It seemed for a time that the larger number 

 and smaller size of the mouth-papillae at the inner angles of 0. varie- 

 gata and of 0. brevispinosa would indicate a certain difference ; but 

 a difference of quite equal extent can be detected in the mouth- 

 organs of a single specimen. The hollow square marking on the 

 upper arm-plates, which, when well developed, seems to give such a 

 characteristic appearance to the arms of this species, may be replaced 

 by a black patch, or there may be a transverse bar, or there may be 

 only the two lines left which run parallel to the long axis of the 

 arm ; again, there may be spots, or the coloration may be fairly 

 uniform. The colour of the disk may be pale, spotted, or reticu- 

 lated; the mouth-shields spotted or uniform in colour. 



Levuka, Fiji. 



* Mobius, ' Beitrage zur Meeresfaima der Insel Mauritius ' &c. (Berlin, 1880). 

 In what follows I may seem to speak somewhat harshly of Dr. Haacke's services ; 

 but I am bound to point out that the list of Ophiunds given on p. 50 of this 

 work has no scientific value whatever. 0. dentata has been for many years 

 regarded, first by Lyman (1865) and since by others, as " only a middling-sized 

 0. echinata;" the type of 0. squamata has been lost, " and nobody can tell 

 what it was, though it might have been 0. brevipes." Dr. Haacke makes no 

 reference to either of these judgments. 



