446 ' PEOF. p. M. DrNCAN 05^ SOME 



the south and east of the Korea, dredged up numerous specimens 

 of small Ophiurans, which were in company with several Aste- 

 roidea and Echinoidea. Dr. J. Grwyn J effreys sent me some of 

 these specimens ; and finding them very interesting, I was glad to 

 avail myself of Dr. Glinther's kindness when he placed in my 

 hands the part of Capt. St, John's collection that had been sent 

 to the British Museum, with a view to its being examined and 

 named. Mr. Percy Sladen undertook, at my suggestion, the ex- 

 amination of the Starfish and Echini ; and this communication is 

 the result of my work on the Brittle-stars. 



Situated near land which is rarely visited by Europeans, the 

 Korean seas are to the south-west of the Japanese islands, to the 

 north and rather to the east o£ Eormosa ; and the Philippines are 

 many degrees to the south and a little to the west. Their floor was 

 virgin ground to the dredger ; and it was reasonably anticipated 

 that some remarkable forms would be discovered in the fauna. 

 It was interesting to notice, as the specimens w^ere brought under 

 careful examination, how several distant Ophiuran faunas were 

 associated together, and represented not so much by identical 

 as by very closely allied species. The peculiar grouping of certain 

 genera very characteristic of well-known areas was to be traced 

 in the fauna of this out-of-the-way locality. 



One group of genera was not without its resemblance to those 

 of the remote Smith's Sound and the North Atlantic ; another 

 recalled the familiar forms of the West-Indian seas ; and a com- 

 munity of species with the Eed Sea was noticed. 



Out of the 16 species and several varieties, only three had pre- 

 viously been described from other localities, namely : — OphioglypTia 

 sinensis, Lyman, from the China seas and Philippines; OpTiionereis 

 duhia, from the Bed Sea and the Philippines ; and OpTiiaetis sex^ 

 radia, from the Pelews and Philippines, Nicobars and Tahiti. 



Three of the new species of Ophioglypha belong to the group of 

 the genus which contains the species O. Sttnvitzii, O. aliida, and 

 O. nodosa; but they may be readily distinguished from these nor- 

 thern forms. The new OpMacantlia is interesting from its be- 

 longing to a genus of which a species is so commonly asso- 

 ciated with the Greenlandic OpMocjlyplicd ; but it has characters 

 which ally it to Ophiacantlia stellata, Lyman, from Barbadoes. 

 And the common Ophiolepis of the Korean seas, whilst having 

 some abnormal characters, is not without some resemblance to the 



