Echinoderms from Southern New Zealand
Amphiura alba Mrtsn., 1924
Amphiura alba Mrtsn., 1924
- New Golden Hind stations: 44, one specimen; 2, two young specimens. Alert stations: 18, two specimens; 20, one specimen.
The above specimens agree with A. alba in having one triangular tentacle-scale, no disc spines, the oral side of the disc completely scaled, spearhead-shaped oral shields, five or six pointed arm-spines, and the outer oral papilla large, flattened, and pointed distally. On the other hand, the six primary plates of the upper side of the disc are quite distinct—of rounded form—each separated from its fellows by smaller disc-scales. In Mortensen's type (from Colville Channel, 35 fathoms), the primaries are said to be "not very distinct." The difference, however, may be due only to age.
We have here yet another instance of a northern New Zealand species occurring seven hundred miles to the southward without known intervening records.