OPHIUEOIDEA FROM THE KOREAN SEAS. 



473 



plates is granular, minute glassy-looking granules being separated 

 by a more opaque develo2)ment. 



The specific characters are the minutely bifurcate or trifurcate 

 thorned condition of the upper and lower surfaces of the disk, the 

 great side arm-shields, the nodose condition of the upper part of 

 the arm, the great development of the side arm-plates, the four 

 sharp spines, and the minute tentacle-scale. 



The species represents Opldacantlia stellata, Lyman, from Bar- 

 badoes, 100 fathoms (Illust. Catal. Harvard Coll., No. 8, ii. p. 11). 

 It differs from 0. indica, Lym. 



Localitij. Straits of Brea, 50 fathoms. Lat. 38° 19' N., long. 

 129° 7' e" Collected by Capt. St. John, E.N. 



G-enus Ophiotheix, Midi. ^ Troschel. 



Numerous specimens of a species audits varieties which belong 

 to this genus are amongst the dredgings brought from the Korean 

 seas by Capt. St. John, E.N. They all have numerous slender, 

 long, serrate, and usually glassy spines on the arm, a broad under 

 surface to the arm, disunited side mouth-shields, and a disk whose 

 colour and armature are excedingly variable. The specific pecu- 

 liarities and the curious amount of variability have been determined 

 after the examination of about eighteen specimens. 



Ophiotheix xoREAifA, sp. nov. Plate XI. figs. 28,29, 30, 31, 32. 



The disk is usually circular in outline, and rarely pentagonal ; 

 it is rather thick, flat above, and swollen at the interbrachial 

 spaces. The radial shields are longer than broad, narrow and 

 rounded within, and broad without, where there is a short rounded 

 projection over the arm. Closer without than within, they are often 

 slightly separated by dermal tissue. Their outer margins are 

 sunken, as it were, and rounded, and their surface is covered with 

 a skin which supports a very few stumps, which may nearly be 

 covered by them, and which may have spinules and even a short 

 spine or two upon the surface. The stumps are swollen at the 

 base, constricted in the cylindrical portion, and are armed with 

 three sharp, slender, wide-apart thorns. The thorns are rarely 

 two and four in number. The spinules are longer than the 

 stump, and have longer thorns. The spines are glassy, slender, 

 and toothed at the side. 



The rest of the upper surface of the disk is crowded with stumps, 



