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Family Ophiocomidae
Ophiocoma L. Agassiz, 1835

Ophipcoma bollonsi Farquhar, 1908

• Alert station 13, two specimens.
• East coast of Otago, between Moeraki and Taiaroa, 40 fathoms; P. M. Ralph, November, 1951; four specimens.
• Off Banks Peninsula, 80 fathoms, 44° 15′·0 S., 173° 31′·0 E.; coll. G. A. Knox; arm fragments.

The specimens from the stations to the east of the South Island are large ones, the largest having R, 10 mm., r, 14 mm. The colour in all cases is dark brownish-purple. H. L. Clark has treated club-shaped spines in Ophiocoma as being of systematic value; however, the presence of three kinds of spines on otherwise similar material from off Banks Peninsula would confirm Mortensen's opinion that club-shaped spines are pathological.