Ophiactis cuspidata Lyman 1879

Specimens referable to this species are in the Dominion Museum, Wellington. They were collected by Mr. W. Foster, of the C.S.S. "Recorder" in 1932, at a point 400 miles north-west of Wellington, in the Tasman Sea, at a depth of 600 fathoms. This species was originally described from material dredged by the "Challenger" from 520 to 600 fathoms, off the Kermadec Islands. It has not. apparently been since seen. Of the other five-armed species of Ophiactis known from New Zealand waters, all differ from the present species in so far as the latter has spines on the disc and also two or three oral papillae on either side of the jaw.