Ophiosphalma elii (A. H. Clark, 1949)

Baker, Alan N., 2016, An illustrated catalogue of type specimens of the bathyal brittlestar genera Ophiomusium Lyman and Ophiosphalma H. L. Clark (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea), Zootaxa 4097 (1), pp. 1-40 : 29

Ophiosphalma elii (A. H. Clark, 1949) .

Figures 49 a, b

Ophiomusium elii Clark, 1949

Holotype USNM E7124, Albatross Station 4096, SE Coast of Maui Id, Hawaii, 497– 523 m.

Main Features: Small (6 mm d.d) pentagonal disc, raised above, flat below. Covered with many thick imbricating scales. Radial shields small, separated and divergent. Upper and ventral arm plates present throughout arms. Ventral interradii with 7–8 plates and small pentagonal oral shields. Genital slits remote from oral shields. Oral papillae not separated. 3 pairs of exposed tentacle pores with 1 large scale. 4, occasionally 5 short stout arms spines, the lower 3 of which become single-hooked distally. This specimen is very similar to O. valdiviae Koehler.