NORTH PACIFIC OPHIURANS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM CLARK. 283 



52 14' 30" N.; long. 174 13' E., 482 fathoms, fine gray sand, peb- 

 bles, bottom temperature 38.6, 4 specimens. Bathymetrical range, 

 59 to 482 fathoms. Temperature range, 40.8 to 38.6. Twenty-two 

 specimens. 



Type. Cat,. No. 25716, U.S.N.M., from station 3319. 



It is most interesting to find this genus, hitherto known onlyjrom 

 the western Atlantic, in the Pacific Ocean off Alaska. The Alaskan 

 species is very nearly allied to lymani from the Atlantic, but judging 

 from the material available to me it differs distinctly in the flat, 

 convex disk grains ; in lymani many of the disk grains are conical and 

 some are almost spine-like, especially on the radial shields and disk 

 margin. The teeth and tooth papillae of l&vis are more slender and 

 spiniform than they are in lymani, and the skin which covers the 

 whole animal is thicker and more full of granules in Isevis. None of 

 these differences is very radical and more abundant material may show 

 that the two forms are not really specifically distinct. The specimens 

 of Ise.vis before me range from 8 to 20 mm. in disk diameter. 



OPHIOCREAS CEDIPUS. 



Ophiocreas cedipus LYMAN, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. 6, 1879, p. 65. 



Localities. Albatross station 4979, off eastern Japan, lat. 33 53' 

 N.; long. 137 42' E., 943 fathoms, brown mud, fine sand, foraminif era, 

 bottom temperature 36.4, 1 specimen; station 5079, off Omai Saki 

 light, Japan, lat. 34 15' N.; long. 138 E., 475 to 505 fathoms, 

 pebbles, bottom temperature 39.1, 2 specimens. 



The specimen from station 4979 is small, about 9 mm. across the 

 disk, dirty whitish, and has low, blunt oral papillae. The specimens 

 from station 5079 are 5 and 20 mm., respectively, across the disk, and 

 are deep purplish brown ; the smaller has a few oral papillae in the 

 mouth angles, but the larger has none. None of the specimens has 

 any unusual swelling at base of arms, but aside from that fact the large 

 one answers very well to Lyman's description and figures. As the 

 swelling of the arm bases is probably associated with the full develop- 

 ment of the reproductive organs, it does not seem to me that its 

 presence or absence can be considered a specific character. It is 

 probably best, therefore, to consider the large specimen before me an 

 example of oedipus. In spite of its oral papillae the little specimen 

 from the same station seems to be undoubtedly identical, and there- 

 fore I can not regard the specimen from station 4979, in which oral 

 papillae are well developed, as a different species, even though its 

 color also is quite different. But it is possible, nevertheless, that more 

 abundant material would show this latter specimen to be specifically 

 distinct. 



