RECENT OPHIURANS. 229 



blackish; arms dull, faintly banded; dried specimens differ in having the arms 

 lighter colored and very distinctly banded, distally, the whitish bands, 2-4 joints 

 wide alternating with dull gray bands of about the same width; on the basal 

 half of the arms the banding is much less distinct and the gray predominates. 



HoLOTYPE (M. C. Z. 3736) and 1 paratype (M. C. Z. 3925). Torres 

 Strait: Murray Islands, Mer. Oct. 7, 1913. Carnegie Exp., 1913. H. L. 

 Clark coU. 



This species is very much hke Ophionephthys in the character of the 

 disk but the arms are very Amphiura-like and it seems best, in view of our 

 present imperfect knowledge of the former genus, to leave these Australian speci- 

 mens in Amphiura. They were found in a piece of coral taken with the tangle 

 in 4-5 fathoms of water off the west reef at Mer, and were kept aUve at the 

 laboratory for some hours. After dark it was noticed that they exhibited 

 a remarkable degree of phosphorescence when irritated, a phenomenon not 

 observed in any other ophiuran at Mer. 



485. A. MULTISPINA, sp. nov. Plate 5, f. 3, 4, 



Disk 8 mm. in diameter; arms 90-95 mm. long. Disk covered with rather 

 coarse, but very numerous scales, largest about the radial shields and smallest 

 at center of disk, where a central primary plate is noticeable ; the other primary 

 plates are not distinguishable. Radial shields small, less than 2 mm. long and 

 much less than 1 mm. wide; they touch distally but are widely separated proxi- 

 mally. Upper arm-plates sUghtly ellipsoidal but seldom much wider than long, 

 broadly in contact throughout. Interbrachial spaces below more or less bare 

 but in one the close coat of scales extends half way to the oral shield. Genital 

 slits small and inconspicuous. Oral shields oval rather longer than wide. Adoral 

 plates very small, scarcely (or not) meeting within. Subdental oral papillae 

 very large and close together; distal oral papilla, stout, blunt, erect, and con- 

 spicuous. First under arm-plate very small, scarcely separating the adjoining 

 adorals; succeeding plates squarish with rounded corners, about as long as wide, 

 broadly in contact. Side arm-plates small, not meeting either above or below; 

 each one bears on either side a series of 7 or 8, rarely 9 (hence the name), 

 short, blunt, thick, flattened arm-spines, subequal or the lowest a trifle the 

 longest and about equaUing an arm-joint. Tentacle-scale single, very large 

 and conspicuous, nearly circular. Color (dried from alcohol), pale brown; 

 disk more nearly gray. 



HoLOTYPE (M. C. Z. 1360). Japan: Mouth OF THE Bay OF Yeddo. E. S. 

 Morse collection. 1878. 



