J' HE ANiNALS 



AITD 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SIXTH SERIES.] 

 No. 47. NOVEMBER 1891. 



XLIV. — Some Notes on British Ophiurids. 

 By F. Jeffkey Bell, M.A., Sec. li.M.S. 



]n revising the names and specific diagnoses of the British 

 Ophiurids I have made one or two notes which it may be 

 useful to publish. 



1. Ophiothrix fragilis and 0. Lueikeni. 



Some time since (Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc, (n. s.) i. p. 325) 

 I ventured to say " Before long I hope to be able to marshal 

 the evidence regarding the variability of 0. pentaphyllum 

 which is in my possession in such a way as to justify the 

 doubts which Sir Wyville Thomson always had as to the 

 distinctness of O. Luetkeni.^^ 



The passage of a year has not diminished my knowledge 

 of the variability of what I called 0. pentaphyllum^ because 

 I was at the time using the nomenclature adopted by Mr. 

 Lyman (c/l Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. iii. p. 249) ; but a close 

 examination of several specimens leads me to thiuk that I 

 cannot perform the promise that I made. 



No absolute speciHc diagnosis has ever been made of what 

 may appropriately be called Liitken's Ophiothrix ; Thomson 

 (' Depths of the Sea,' p. 100) regarded it as a variety of 0. 

 fvagilis, and dedicated it " doubts and all " to Liitken. 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Scr. 6. Vol. viii. 23 



