purpureus Perrier, 1869, Ophidiaster

(Fig. 32)

Ophidiaster purpureus Perrier, 1869: 61; 1875: 127.

Ophidiaster hemprichi – Clark 1993: 349.

CURRENT STATUS. — Ophidiaster hemprichi (Müller & Troschel, 1842) .

M ATERIAL EXAMINED. — Seychelles • MNHN-IE-2014-404; holotype; Rousseau leg.; 1842 .

DISTRIBUTION. — The species is rather common in the tropical Indo-West-Pacific.

REMARK

Perrier (1875: 127) established the species O. purpureus to accommodate one of the two specimens that Lamarck identified as a representative of his new species Asterias cylindrica, ( O. purpureus is now considered a synonym of Ophidiaster hemprichi (Müller & Troschel, 1842)) . Yet Perrier did not consider the second Lamarck specimen of Asterias cylindrica to designate the holotype of O. purpureus . He assigned as holotype an individual collected by Rousseau in the Seychelles in 1842.