New record of brittle star from south eastern Arabian Sea

Phylum: Echinodermata

Class: Ophiuroidea Gray, 1840

Order: Ophiurida Müller & Troschel, 1840

Family: Ophiodermatidae Ljungman, 1867

Ophioconis cupida Koehler, 1905

Collection: SE Arabian Sea shelf, off Cape Comorin, 49 m. Cape Comorin – 7° 59.26′ N, 77° 10.767′ E, 49 m, 15.11.2010 (FORVSS 282, St. 8). – 8° 8.634′ N, 77° 9.403′ E, 49 m, 9.12.2013 (FORVSS 321, St. 13). Naturalist dredge.

Voucher No.: CMLRE IO/SS/ECD/00148 (FORV Referral Centre, CMLRE, Kochi)

Description: Disc diameter 5 mm, arms 2-3 times this length; disc with a well-defined dorsolateral margin, and wholly covered with uniform rounded granulation, which is dislodged easily to reveal thin imbricating scales underneath; radial shields indistinct. Oral shields rounded or sub-triangular, covered partly by granulation, as are the adoral shield and oral plates; apical oral papillae indistinguishable from these granules; a row of 3 oral papillae along the edge of jaw. Teeth extremely wide, with a rounded, serrated and hyaline edge. Arm spines numbering 7-9, flattened, as long as the corresponding segment. Colour white to light grey with dark mottling.

Biological association: None.

Remarks:

Distribution: Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, SE Arabian Sea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Wallis & Futuna Islands.

Distribution map:

Identified by: Parameswaran, Usha V.

Publication: Parameswaran U. V., V. N. Sanjeevan, Abdul Jaleel K. U., Vinu Jacob, Aiswarya Gopal, Anil Kumar V., M. Sudhakar (2017) An updated checklist of echinoderms of the South Eastern Arabian Sea, Marine Biodiversity. DOI: 10.1007/s12526-017-0732-1.