Bull. nat. Hist. Mus. Lond. (Zool.)62(l): 37-39 



Issued 27 June 1996 



On a new species of Ophidiaster 

 (Echinodermata: Asteroidea) from southern 

 China 



YULIN LIAO 



Institute of Oceanology, Academia Sinica, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao, RR. China 



AILSA M.CLARK 



Formerly of The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK 



Synopsis. A new species, Ophidiaster multispinus, from southern Chinese waters, is described. This was previously 

 recorded by A.M . Clark ( 1 982) and by Liao & Clark (in press) as Ophidiaster armatus Koehler, 1910 but both authors now 

 believe that Chinese specimens are specifically distinct. 



SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION 



Family OPHIDIASTERIDAE 

 Genus Ophidiaster L. Agassiz, 1835 



Ophidiaster multispinus sp. nov. 



Fig. 1, pi. 1 



Ophidiaster armatus: A.M. Clark, 1982:487, 490; Liao & Clark 

 (in press): .[Non Ophidiaster armatus Koehler, 1910]. 



HOLOTYPE. IOAS:E1070, Hainan Strait, southern China 

 (20°15'N, 110°15'E), 55 m, rocky, collected July 10, 1960; 

 paratypes IOAS-E-1071, 4 specimens from Xiamen (Amoy), 

 Fujian Province, 1975. 



Description. R (major radius) 55-70 mm; r (minor radius) 10 

 mm, br (arm breadth basally) 1 1 mm. Disc small, arms five, 

 unequal, cylindrical, only tapering slightly in the distal third to 

 rounded tips. Abactinal plates large, more or less triangular in 



shape, slightly convex, covered with numerous coarse granules, 

 density in the central part of the plates 12-18/mm 2 . Abactinal 

 plates on dorsal surface of arms arranged in three regular 

 longitudinal series, together with the two marginal series each 

 side forming seven regular longitudinal series as well as 

 transverse ones. Papular areas distinctly arranged in eight 

 longitudinal series but the lowest on each side with only a few 

 pores in each area. No pedicellariae detected. All the marginals, 

 except the basal three to five, armed with a fairly conspicuous 

 short blunt spine, these forming a longitudinal series but missing 

 on occasional plates, leaving small gaps in the sequence. Some 

 abactinal plates near the arm tips also bearing one or two small 

 spines but these are not at all conspicuous. 



Adambulacral plates with two furrow spines, those of 

 consecutive plates not separated by granules on the vertical faces 

 of the furrows. A large cone-like subambulacral spine on each 

 plate, set back from the furrow within the general granulation. 

 The most proximal six to eleven adambulacral plates with a 

 smaller supplemental series of subambulacral spines interposed 

 between the furrow spines and the main subambulacral ones. 



Fig. 1 Ophidiaster multispinus sp. nov., Holotype. Proximal portion of actinal surface showing: (a) furrow spines; (b) supplemental subambulacral 

 spines; (c) subambulacral spines; (d) actinal spines. The mouth is towards the right. The scale bar = 2 mm. 



l©The Natural History Museum, 1996 



