Ophionereis olivacea H.L. Clark, 1900

Gondim, Anne I., Alonso, Carmen, Dias, Thelma L. P., Manso, Cynthia L. C. & Christoffersen, Martin L., 2013, A taxonomic guide to the brittle-stars (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea) from the State of Paraiba continental shelf, Northeastern Brazil, ZooKeys 307, pp. 45-96 : 64

Ophionereis olivacea H.L. Clark, 1900 Figure 10 f–j

Description.

Disk usually pentagonal (dd = 3.15 to 3.75 mm). Covered by small and imbricating scales (Fig. 10f). Radial shields small, triangular, narrow, elongated and broadly separated (Fig. 10f). Largest scales surrounding and in between radial shields. Ventral interradius covered by imbricating scales similar to dorsal ones (Fig. 10g). Oral shields tending to heart-shape (Fig. 10h). Adoral shields enlarged laterally. Four oral papillae on each side of jaw angle (Fig. 10h). Dorsal arm plate slightly longer than wide (Fig. 10i). Accessory dorsal arm plate small, sometimes with several overlapping plates (Fig. 10f, i). Ventral arm plate slightly longer than wide (Fig. 10j). Three arm spines slightly larger than arm segment. Single large tentacle scale.

Distribution.

The Florida Keys, the Antilles, the Mexican Caribbean, Belize, Panama, the Colombian Caribbean ( Hendler et al. 1995, Abreu-Pérez et al. 2005, Alvarado et al. 2008), and Brazil, from Pará ( Albuquerque 1986), and Rio de Janeiro ( Manso 1993). Intertidal to 77m. Sampled for the first time in the State of Paraíba, between 18 and 30 m, in this study.

Remarks.

Known from bottoms of quartz sand, corals, coral fragments, mangroves, and phytal communities ( Hendler et al. 1995). This is a protandric hermaphrodite ( Byrne 1991) that broods its young ( Hendler and Littman 1986). The ciliated embryo lacks both ophiopluteus and vitellaria features and develops directly ( Hendler et al. 1995). According to Hendler et al. (1995) this species has a gray disk, with gray-green blotches and an irregular dense or netlike pattern of the same color.