OPHIURANS OF THE PHILIPPINE AND ADJACENT WATERS. 39 



but it is relatively larger and broader in my specimen; the upper 

 arm plates are also more broadened, and are very much broader 

 than long. The two radial shields of each pair are not always 

 separated; only on two pairs does the line of separation show the 

 conical tubercles which were figured by H. L. Clark; in the three 

 other pairs the radial shields are in contact for half their length, 

 and the tubercles are not yet developed on the line of separation, 

 probably because of the youth of the individual. My specimen must 

 be smaller than that figured by H. L. Clark, in which the diameter of 

 the disk apparently reached 5 mm. The under arm plates decrease 

 very rapidly in size, but the fourth and following are broken up into 

 a number of small rounded fragments. 



I give here two photographs of the Albatross specimen, which 

 complete the data which we already have on 0. obstricta. 



Matsumoto has very recently described ('15, p. 65) a new species 

 of the genus Ophiomoeris, 0. projecta, found in Japan at a depth of 

 300 fathoms. I do not believe that it can be referred to the species 

 of Ophiomoeris dredged by the Albatross, for in O. projecta the 

 radial shields are in contact for half their length and the disk bears 

 large and prominent granules, which are found both on the distal 

 border of and along the line of division between the radial shields; 

 sometimes these granules even occur on the outer sides of the shields, 

 a feature not evident in my specimen. These differences may be ap- 

 preciated by a comparison of my photographs with the figures pub- 

 lished by Matsumoto in 1917 ('17, p. 141, fig. 35). 



Ophiomoeris obstricta was first dredged by the Challenger in lati- 

 tude 5° S., longitude 132° E., at a depth of 236 meters (129 fathoms). 

 The specimens collected by the Albatross and studied by H. L. Clark 

 were from latitude 30°-32° N., longitude 128°-130° E., and were 

 dredged at depths varying from 174 to 247 meters (95 to 135 fathoms). 



H. L. Clark thought it necessary to create for Lyman's Ophiocera- 

 mis obstricta a new genus, which he called Ophiurases, but he evi- 

 dently either forgot or misunderstood the genus Ophiomoeris which 

 I created in 1904 for a new species, 0. spinosa, discovered by the 

 Siboga, and in which I had placed Lyman's Ophioceramis obstricta 

 and 0. clausa, as well as my own 0. tenera (Kcehler '04, p. 17), of 

 which he says nothing. The genus Ophiurases is absolutely synony- 

 mous with the genus Ophiomoeris, which has precedence, and it must 

 therefore disappear from zoological nomenclature. Matsumoto did 

 not mention it in the enumeration of the genera which he assigns to 

 the subfamily Ophiochondrinae, and he states that Ophiurases ob- 

 strictus H. L. Clark, 1911, is a synonym of Ophiomoeris obstricta 

 Kcehler (Matsumoto '15, p. 65). 



