Ophiactis profundi Lütken & Mortensen, 1899

Ophiactis profundi Lütken & Mortensen, 1899: 140 –142, pl. 6(4–6).—Koehler, 1909: 173.—Clark, H.L., 1915a: 265.—Koehler, 1922: 192–193, pl. 63(8).—Koehler, 1930: 122.—Clark, H.L., 1946: 209.—Fell, 1952: 23.—Murakami, 1963: 173.—McKnight, 1975: 71.—Irimura, 1981: 22–23.—Guille, 1981: 439–440.—McKnight, 1993a: 188.

Ophiactis pteropoma Clark, H.L., 1911a: 134 –135, fig. 50.—Clark, H.L., 1915a: 265.—Matsumoto, 1917: 154, pl. 3(9).—Clark, H.L., 1918: 303.—D'yakonov, 1954: 43-44 [synonymised by Koehler, 1922].

Ophiactis profundi var. novaezelandiae Mortensen, 1924: 128 –131, fig. 13.—Fell, 1958: 26.—Fell, 1960b: 67.—McKnight, 1967a: 309.

Ophiactis profundi var Novae-Zelandiae. —Mortensen, 1936: 266.—Clark, H.L., 1938: 258.

Ophiactis plana.—Clark, A.M. & Courtman-Stock, 1976: 163–164, figs. 157, 162.

Material Examined. Bay of Islands. TAN0906/87, NIWA 55535 (1). TAN0906/105, NIWA 55781 (1). TAN0906/ 132, NIWA 56083 (1). TAN0906/178, NIWA 77742 (1). West Coast North Island. TAN1105/80, NIWA 77739 (5). TAN1105/88, NIWA 77740 (4). TAN1105/137, NIWA 77741 (1).

Diagnosis. Six arms, often unequal in size due to fissipary and regrowth of arms. Dorsal arm plates triangularfan shaped, narrowly separate from arm base. Single axe-head shaped outer oral papilla. Disc spines absent or rare. Three rarely four arm spines, single tentacle scale. Pink tinge to plates of preserved animals.

Description. See Mortensen (1924).

Distribution. New Zealand (55–1225 m), widespread in tropical and temperate zones in the Indo-Pacific and possibly Atlantic.