Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

;ECHINODEKMATA. 13910. OpMocoma brevipes.Peters, Archivfilr Natur. 1852, p. 85 ;see Lyman, p. 27.Mr. Lj'man (Prel. List, p. 27) gives as synonyms of this, his own0. insv.laria (about which there will, I suppose, be no dispute), the0. ternisjnna of Martens, an unnamed specimen of which, fromthe island of Mauritius, has been for many years in the collection ofthe British Museum and has for a long time been a source of muchdisquiet to myself (I am now persuaded that this is a specimen towhich Dr. von Martens would have given the name ternisjj'ma),Ophiocoma varieguta and 0. brevisjnnosa of E. A. Smith, from theisland of Rodriguez. I do not know that a more western localitythan the island just named has ever been recorded l)y a zoologistat any rate, Dr. Haacke did not detect the species among the Ophiuridscollected by Prof. Mtibius in the island of Mauritius *, unlesshe has been, as is possible, misled by the definition of 0. squamatagiven by M tiller and Troschel ; the three or four lateral spines, thetwo teutacle-scales, and the square markings on the upper armplatesmight deceive a hasty nomcuclator, but they could not, Ithink, mislead any one who refers to the second edition of Lamarck(vol. iii. ly40), p. 225, where he will find references to the platesof Link and 0. F. Miiller. Although the species there figured isregarded by the editors as distinct from 0. squamata, the resemblancebetween such an Oi^hiurid as this Ophiocoma and the OphiothrixpentapliyUum figured by the two just-mentioned naturalists, is sovery slight that we are forbidden from supposing that the Ophiurasquamata, Lamk. {Opiiiocoma squamata, M. & Tr.), is a near ally ofan Ophiothrix or Ophiothrix-lWa form.The variations exhibited by this very widely distributed speciesare indeed remarkable. It seemed for a time that the larger numberand smaller size of the mouth-papilla) at the inner angles of 0. variegataand of 0. hrtvispinosa would indicate a certain difference ; buta difference of quite equal extent can be detected in the mouthorgansof a single specimen. The hollow square marking on theupper arm-plates, which, when well developed, seems to give such acharacteristic appearance to the arms of this species, may be replacedby a black patch, or there may be a transverse bar, or there may beonly the two lines left which run parallel to the long axis of thearm ; again, there may be spots, or the coloration may be fairlyuniform. The colour of the disk may be pale, spotted, or reticulated;the mouth- shields spotted or uniform in colour.Levuka, Fiji.* MiJbius,'Beitrage zur Meeresfauna der Insel Mauritius ' &c. (Berlin, 1880).Iq what follows I may seem to speak somewhat harshly of Dr. Haacke's services ;but I am bound to point out that the list of Ophiurids given on p. 50 of thiswork has no scientific value whatever. 0. dentata has been for many yearsregarded, first by Lyman (18()5) and since by others, as " only a middling-sized0. echinata;" the type of 0. aquamata has been lo.st, " and nobody can tellwhat it was, though it might have been 0. brevipes." Dr. Haacke makes noreference to either of these judgments.