Ophiotreta valenciennesi Lyman 1878

• Main Author: Stöhr, Sabine
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2011
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Echinodermata; Ophiuroidea; Ophiurida; Ophiacanthidae; Ophiotreta; Ophiotreta valenciennesi; Pacific; Paterson; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6192708; https://zenodo.org/record/6192708

Ophiotreta valenciennesi (Lyman, 1878) Material. Sta. CP 1646: 4 spms. Remarks. Currently, two subspecies are recognized within O . valenciennesi , the nominate Indo-Pacific form and the Atlanto-Mediterranean O . valenciennesi rufescens Koehler, 1896. The differences between these are more rugose disk granules and longer adoral shields in the nominate subspecies (Paterson 1985). Mortensen (1933 b) observed a large variability in the oral shields of Atlantic specimens, which he referred to rufescens , because he found them different from typical valenciennesi . This distinction cannot be maintained though, since Pacific specimens fall within the variability of rufescens (O'Hara & Stöhr 2006, and Lifou material). Given the high variability of several characters it is possible that these forms represent a species complex, but a subspecies distinction cannot be maintained. The delimitation of Ophiotreta from Ophiacantha rests mainly on the usually spatulate shape of the distal oral papilla in Ophiotreta (Verrill 1899 b) . This character has however also been shown for Ophiacantha bidentata (Bruzelius, 1805), the type species of Ophiacantha (Martynov & Litvinova 2008). Another generic character, the flat and serrated arm spines, is shared by Ophiopristis , of which Ophiotreta originally was a subgenus (Verrill 1899), and by Ophiocopa , suggesting possible affinities between these genera, which were placed in three different subfamilies (Paterson 1985). This may be additional evidence supporting Martynov's (2010 b) decision to drop the subfamilies. : Published as part of Stöhr, Sabine, 2011, New records and new species of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, pp. 1-50 in Zootaxa 3089 on pages 20-21, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.279037 : {"references": ["Lyman, T. (1878) Ophiuridae and Astrophytidae of the \" Challenger \" expedition. Part I. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard, 5, 65 - 168.", "Koehler, R. (1896) Note preliminaire sur les Ophiures des premieres campagnes de la \" Princesse Alice. \" Memoirs Societe Zoologique de France, 9, 241 - 253.", "Paterson, G. L. J. (1985) The deep-sea Ophiuroidea of the North Atlantic Ocean. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Zoology Series, 49, 1 - 162.", "Mortensen, T. (1933 b) Ophiuroidea. The Danish Ingolf Expedition, 4, 1 - 121.", "O'Hara, T. D. & Stohr, S. (2006) Deep water Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) of New Caledonia: Ophiacanthidae and Hemieuryalidae. Tropical Deep Sea Benthos (Memoires du Museum national d'Histoire naturelle 193), 24, 33 - 141.", "Verrill, A. E. (1899 b) Report on the Ophiuroidea collected by the Bahama expedition in 1893. Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa, 5, 1 - 86.", "Martynov, A. V. & Litvinova, N. M. (2008) Deep-water Ophiuroidea of the northern Atlantic with descriptions of three new species and taxonomic remarks on certain genera and species. Marine Biology Research, 4, 76 - 111."]}