Ophiophycis gloriensis Guille & Vadon, 1986

O’Hara, Timothy D. & Thuy, Ben, 2022, Biogeography and taxonomy of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from the Îles Saint- Paul and Amsterdam in the southern Indian Ocean, Zootaxa 5124 (1), pp. 1-49 : 13

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5124.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C015F8CB-799B-4A92-90AE-02B4C576089E
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6404690
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/C72D87A1-5352-FF9C-FEA3-8424FB85FD42
treatment provided by	Plazi
scientific name	Ophiophycis gloriensis Guille & Vadon, 1986
status

Treatment

Ophiophycis gloriensis Guille & Vadon, 1986 View in CoL

Ophiophycis gloriensis Guille & Vadon, 1986: 178–181 View in CoL , fig. 1(a–b), pl. 3(22–24).

Material examined. MD 50 DC108, MNHN IE.2009.1618 (2).

Distribution. W Indian Ocean ( 250 m). SPA ( 460–510 m).

Remarks. These tiny specimens (1.0– 1.3 mm dd) are referred to Ophiophycis gloriensis from the SW Indian Ocean as they have a first LAP that extends to the disc margin, spiniform thorny arm spines, a star-shaped centrodorsal plate and 4 visible pairs of tentacle pores. They differ from the larger type ( 2.5 mm dd) in having only one tentacle scale and one scale between the radial shields. These are distinguishing features of another species from St Helena, O. gracilis Mortensen, 1933d , which Litvinova (1981) considers a juvenile of Ophiomisidium speciosum Koehler, 1914 . Ophiomisidium speciosum has also been reported from Kerguelen ( Guille 1982), south of the SPA. More data is required to resolve the relationship of Ophiophycis and Ophiomisidium species.