Ophiactis abyssicola (M. Sars)

• Amphiura abyssicola M. Sars. 1861. Oversigt Norges Echin., p. 18.

Material Examined: Nine specimens; 1,300 fathoms. Cook Strait, VUZ Station 58, 8 specimens (arms pink in life, J. C. Yaldwyn); 1,200–1,300 fathoms, Cook Strait, VUZ Station 56, 1 specimen.

var. poa Lyman: 22 specimens from 600 fathoms, Cook Strait, VUZ Station 75 (2 individuals) and 550 fathoms, Cook Strait, VUZ Station 83, 20 individuals; these were taken from burrows in hard mud brought up from the sea-floor. The colour was recorded as pink. They differ from var. cuspidata, which occurs with them, in having many more spines on the disc, and lacking the prominent primary plates.

var. cuspidata Lyman: 2 specimens, one each from 400 fathoms, Cook Strait, VUZ Station 87, and 550 fathoms, Cook Strait, VUZ Station 83. This form has been recorded from 600 fathoms, Tasman Sea, 400 miles NW of Wellington (Fell, 1951, p. 3), and from Challenger Stations 170 and 171, 520–600 fathoms, off the Kermadec Islands. The Cook Strait specimens were pink when taken.

Ophiactis hirta Lyman

• Lyman, T., 1882. Challenger Ophiuroidea, p. 118–9, Pl. 20.
• Mortensen, Th., 1924. Vid. Medd. dansk naturh. For., 77, p. 126.

Material Examined: Three specimens, all six-armed; 200–300 fathoms, Cook Strait. VUZ Station 51, 1 specimen; 150 fathoms, Cook Strait, VUZ Station 98, 2 specimens.

Ophiactis profundi var. novaezelandiae Mortensen

• Mortensen, Th., 1924. Vid. Medd. dansk naturh. For., 77, p. 128–31, Fig. 13.

Material Examined: 8 specimens—130 fathoms, Station 34, Chatham Islands 1954 Expedition, 3 specimens; 100 fathoms, Island Bay shelf, 5 specimens.

The holotype was from Cook Strait, 120 fathoms, and the Discovery took the species at Discovery Station 941, 128 metres, also in Cook Strait.

Ophiactis resiliens Lyman

• Lyman, T., 1882. Challenger Ophiuroidea, p. 115, Fig. 20.

Material Examined: Four specimens, two of them from the Island Bay shelf at ca. 100 fathoms (Fell, 1952, p. 22) and two from VUZ Station 55. at 40–100 fathoms in Cook Strait.

Mortensen (1924, p. 124) records the species from 120 fathoms in Cook Strait.