Ophiomusium stellatum Verrill, 1899

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 : 22

Ophiomusium stellatum Verrill, 1899 .

Figures 34 a, b

Ophiomusium stellatum Verrill, 1899 ; H.L. Clark, 1941.

Neotype, MCZ 6477, Atlantis station 3483, Gulf of Mexico, 521m.

Verrill’s type specimen could not be located either in the MCZ or the YPM collections. 4 specimens from the type locality identified by H. L. Clark are in the MCZ however, and I here designate one of these as a neotype.

Main Features: Disc with many imbricating scales both dorsally and ventrally. Small, widely separated radial shields. Arms noticeably flattened, depressed centrally between successive dorsal arm plates. Dorsal arm plates diamond-shaped, present throughout arm. Surfaces of arm plates finely rugose. Ventral plates throughout arm. Two long am spines, lowermost longest and thickest, just short of one arm segment in length. Small oral shield. Genital slits run to half the length of the second lateral arm plates. Oral papillae not separated. Two pairs of exposed tentacle pores, each with 1 scale.

This species should be closely compared with O. moniliforme H. L. Clark.

Figures

FIGURE 34. Ophiomusium stellatum MCZ 6477: a, b, dorsal and ventral disc sectors.