OPHIUBOIDEA FROM THE KOREAN SEAS. 



477 



glassy, and they are slender and long. The hooks are large, with 

 two sharp jDrocesses, and are blunt. This is a young form of a 

 variety of the last type. 



LocaliUj. Korean seas. Collected by Capt. St. John, E.N. 



In the British Museum. 



Genus Ophiothela, Verrill. 

 (Notes on Eadiata, Trans. Connecticut Acad. vol. i. part 2, 

 page 269.) 



Verrill has described a species O^Mothela mirabilis, and Lyman 

 gives a drawing of the side-arm of a specimen (Illust. Cat. Har- 

 vard College, No. 8, ii. 1875, page 34, pi. iv. fig. 60). The species 

 is from Panama Bay, Pearl Island. 



Lyman has described a species Ophioihela tigris, probably from 

 the Pacific (Illust. Cat. Harvard College, No. vi. page 10, pi. i. 

 figs. 10-12, 1871) ; and Liitken has described OpliiotJiela isidicola 

 from the Eastern seas (Ophiurid. nov., Overs. K. Danske Yidensk. 

 Selskabs Porhand. 1872, pp. 92 & 107). Numerous specimens 

 of this species were obtained by Semper from the Philippines, and 

 are now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard Col- 

 lege. 



A specimen which must be referred to this genus is amongst the 

 collection of Ophiurans from the Korea, and instead of clasping 

 some kind of Isis or any zoophyte, it clings to the arms of a blunt- 

 spined Amphiura. Its habits are evidently those of the forms 

 already described, and its flap-like side arm-plates, the well-deve- 

 loped hooks, and the skin-covered arms ornamented with rounded 

 masses of carbonate of lime, the six arms and corresponding large 

 close radial shields, bring it clearly within the genus. Prom 

 Lyman's plates the Korean form differs, and it would appear to 

 differ from the other species. I have some forms from the Eed 

 Sea which are closely allied to that now under consideration ; and 

 they all form a group characterized by the regular ornamentation 

 of the disk, with short, thick, knob-shaped spines, having a broad 

 foundation, the regular boss ornamentation of the upper arm and 

 the semiglobose condition of the mouth-shields, and the presence 

 on the distal free edge of the sidq mouth-shield of a club-shaped 

 spine. 



Ophiothela Yeeeilli, sp. nov. Plate XI. fig. 33. 

 The disk is rather thick, and the radial shields covered with a 

 minutely and sharply granular skin. They have numerous very 



