126 
serve as base for keeping the two forms as separate species. The 
only thing which makes me hesitate a little in declaring O. nomen- 
iis identical with O. resiliens is the faet that Farquhar in his de- 
scription of O. nomentis says: “one rounded leaflike mouth-papilla 
on each side of the base of the mouth-angle“. As a matter of faet, 
my specimens, which otherwise agree very well with Farquhar’s 
description, have two mouth-papillæ, as has O. resiliens. In the 
rather poor photographic figure given by H. L. Clark (Cat. Rec. 
Oph. PI. 11 . 2 ) of a cotype of O. nomentis the mouth-papillæ are 
not distinetly discernible; but since Clark in his key to the spec¬ 
ies of Ophiaetis (Brittle-Stars, old and new, p. 301) places O. no¬ 
mentis in the group with 2 mouth-papillæ, the conclusion seems 
inevitable that Farquhar’s statement is a mistake, and that the 
type of O. nomentis really had 2 mouth-papillæ.^) — It thus seems 
to me an unavoidable conclusion that O. nomentis is identical with 
the Australian species, O. resiliens Lym. 
It may be pointed out that the coneave outer edge of the dorsal 
plates in Fig. 11 .4 is no constant feature, and cannot be used as 
a feature to distinguish the New Zealand from the Australian form. 
The breaking up of the dorsal plates in several small irregular 
plates not rarely oceurring in Australian specimens I have not ob- 
served in any of my New Zealand specimens; but Farquhar has 
observed it in his specimens. 
The eggs are very small and numerous, which faet indicates 
almost certainly that this species has a typical Ophiopluteus-larva. 
17. Ophiaetis hirta Lyman. 
Figs. 12, a—c. 
Ophiaetis hirta. T h. Ly man. 1882. Challenger Ophiuroidea, p. 118. PI. 
XX, Figs. 4—6. 
— — H. L. Clark. 1915. Catalogue Recent Ophiurans. p.266. 
— — — 1918. Brittle-Stars, new and old. Buil. 
Mus. C. Zool. Vol. LXII. p. 310. 
0 In one of the specimens from Cook Strait, received through Mr. W. R. 
B. O 1 i V e r, I find in some of the mouthangles only one outer mouth 
papilla, in others two. This specimen is, upon the whole, somewhat ab¬ 
normal. Another of these specimens has only 4 arms. 
