RECENT OPHIURANS. 277 



group of spine-bearing plates. Oral shields much wider than long, rounded 

 pentagonal; madreporite nearly or quite twice as large as the others. Adoral 

 plates large, somewhat triangular, usually meeting within. Under arm-plates 

 quadrilateral, much wider than long, distal margin concave, more or less widely 

 separated from each other. Side arm-plates not conspicuous; each carries a 

 series of 7-8 glassy arm-spines which may be slender, smooth and pointed or 

 somewhat stouter with thickened thorny tips. Tentacle-scale distinct and scale- 

 like. Color (dried from alcohol), reddish or reddish white marked on the disk 

 with a complex, ornate pattern of dark red Unes; arms (dorsally) prettily banded 

 with dark red, a transverse stripe across each upper arm-plate and another 

 between every two plates; there is also a short transverse dash on the distal 

 half of each plate; under arm-plates whitish, each with a transverse stripe or 

 mark of dark red. In the holotype, the pattern both on disk and arms is more 

 or less obscm-e, so the description is made from another specimen. In a third 

 individual (disk-diameter about 6 mm.), the center of disk and the interradial 

 areas are bluish gray speckled with blackish and the only red shade is on the 

 radial shields, but the arms show the characteristic transverse markings, albeit 

 somewhat indistinctly. 



Holotype (M. C. Z. 2476) and 7 paratypes (M. C. Z. 3928). Zanzibar. 



These specimens were sent to the Museum at various times in 1861 and 

 1862 by Messrs. Caleb Cooke and William Webb and are marked by Mr. Lyman, 

 "Ophiothrix sp. nov.?"; on one label the words "Poor condition" are added. 

 They certainly do not belong to any of the species hitherto recorded from the 

 western Indian Ocean but they are evidently nearly related to 0. trilineata and 

 to 0. tristis. The color-pattern and the form of the under arm-plates will dis- 

 tinguish them at once from either of those species however. 



849. O. PROPINQUA Lyman, 1861. Proc. Boston soc. nat. hist., 8, p. 83. Koehler, 1898. Bull. 



sci., 31, pi. 3, f. 20-22. 



22 specimens, including holotype. Zanzibar. Mauritius. Phihppine 

 Islands, 6 fms. Portuguese East Indies: off east end of Timor 15-30 fms. 

 Torres Strait: Murray Islands, Mer. Gilbert Islands. 



850. O. PROTEUS Koehler, 1905. Siboga-exp. Oph. litt., p. 100. 1898. Bull, sci., 31, pi. 2, t. U-14 



(as 0. comata). 



1 specimen. Dutch East Indies: Kei Islands, 50 fms. 



O. purpurea von Martens, 1867. Monatsb. K.-Preus. akad. wiss. Bf 

 1896. Jena, denkschr., 8, pi. 17, f. 23, 23a. 



4 specimens. Philippine Islands, 35 fms. ; Cebu, Bantayan Reef, 4^6 fms. 



851. ©.PURPUREA VON Martens, 1867. Monatsb.K.-Preus.akad. wiss. Berlin, p. 346. Dodeblein, 

 1896. Jena, denkschr., 8, pi. 17, f. 23, 23a. 



