Ophiocoma pusilla (Brock, 1888)

[New Japanese name: Itabuto-kumohitode]

(Fig. 9D)

Ophiomastix pusilla Brock 1888: 499 .— Pfeffer 1900: 85.— Koehler 1905: 65, pl. 6, figs 9, 10, pl. 13, fig. 3.— H. L. Clark 1915: 296.— A. M. Clark 1967: 45, fig. 5.

Ophiocoma pusilla . H. L. Clark 1921: 131.— Devaney 1970: 25 –28, figs 26, 29; 1974: 160, 161.— A. M. Clark & Rowe 1971: 86, 87.—A. M. Clark 1976: 259, 260; 1980: 544.— A. M. Clark & Courtman-Stock 1976: 174, fig. 190.— Cherbonnier & Guille 1978: 173, 174, pl. 11(3, 4).— Sloan et al. 1979: 106.— Guille & Jangoux 1978: 64.— Marsh 1986: 71.— Marsh et al. 1993: 61.— Rowe & Gates: 1995: 388.— Price & Rowe 1996: 77.— Irimura & Tachikawa 2002: 15.— Stöhr 2011: 36 – 38, fig. 17l, m.

Ophiocoma latilanxia Murakami, 1943a: 194, fig. 13; 1943b: 217.— A. M. Clark & Rowe 1971: 86, 87.— Irimura & Tachikawa 2002: 15.

Ophiocoma sp.— A. M. Clark 1952: 208.

Ophiocoma insularia — Balinsky 1957: 26 [Non Ophiocoma insularia Lyman, 1861].

Ophiocoma insularia var. variegate— H. L. Ckark 1938: 330 [Non Ophiocoma insularia var. variegate Smith, 1876].

Ophiocoma scolopendrina— H. L. Clark 1921, pl. 13, fig. 9 [Non Ophiura scolopendrina Lamarck, 1816].

Material examined. Ie Island (RUMF-ZE-02083[1]): “entrance” of the “Unnamed cave”, under coral rubble, approximately 18 m depth, 24 June 2017.

Distribution. Widely distributed in Indo-Pacific. Depth range 0– 426 m.

Remarks. This specimen is identified as Ophiocoma pusilla by virtue of having: numerous and dense granules on disc except near genital slits; four, rarely five cylindrical and pointed long arm spines, approximately two times longer than corresponding arm segment on proximal portion of arms; two oval tentacle scales; broad, two times as wide as long ventral arm plates on proximal portion of the arm (e.g. Devaney, 1970).