New records and new species of Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) from Lifou, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia
Author
Stöhr, Sabine
text
Zootaxa
2011
3089
1
50
journal article
46062
10.5281/zenodo.279037
9be0b0af-4593-4eaf-85c6-438539d8fbd0
1175-5326
279037
Ophiotreta valenciennesi
(
Lyman, 1878
)
Material.
Sta. CP1646: 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 (1933b)
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 1899b
)
. 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 (2010b) decision to drop the subfamilies.