Ophiocnida californica Ziesenhenne 1940

Ophiocnida californica Ziesenhenne, 1940 Fig. 17G‒L Ophiocnida californica Ziesenhenne, 1940: 25‒27, pl. 5, figs. 4‒6.— Granja-Fernández et al. 2014: 109. Material examined. Seven individuals at one station. TALUD XIV, Sta. 32, 3 ind. (ICML-EMU-11174), 3 ind. (ICML-EMU-11175), and 1 ind. (ICML-EMU-11678). Comparative material. Holotype: LACM 615.1. Paratypes, 32 ind.: ICML-UNAM 3.76.0, LACM 615.2, LACM 615.3, LACM 615.4, LACM 615.5, MCZ OPH-7032, USNM E8007 (Supplementary file 2). Description (ICML-EMU-11175). DD = 6 mm. Disc circular. Dorsal disc covered by imbricated scales and scattered small spines mostly around the margin of the disc. Primary plates rounded, widely separated from each other. RS almost bar-like, separated by elongated scales for half their length (Fig. 17G). Ventral interradii covered by imbricated scales smaller than dorsal disc (Fig. 17H). OSh broader than long, spearhead-shaped. Madreporite slightly larger than OSh. AdSh trapezoidal, meeting in front of OSh. Jaws bearing three oral papillae at each side; AdShSp slightly serrated, rectangular, the largest; 2AdShSp pointed; IPa quadrangular-rounded. vT quadrangular (Fig. 17I). Arms slender. DAP twice as wide as long, triangular, some fragmented in 2‒3 pieces, contiguous (Fig. 17J). VAP slightly broader than long, pentagonal, contiguous. LAP with up to three arm spines, small (approximately one arm segment in length), blunt-tip, middle the longest, dorsalmost the shortest. Tentacle pores with two oval TSc (Fig. 17K). Color pattern dorsally and ventrally light brown (ethanol preservation) (Fig. 17G‒L). Habitat and distribution. Gulf of California, Mexico; 5‒302 m depth, coral, algae, sandy, muddy, and rocky substrates (Ziesenhenne 1940; pers. obs.). The material examined was collected only in one locality in the Gulf of California; 123 m depth. Remarks. In some specimens of O. californica collected during this survey, the central primary plate is always evident, contrary to the radial primary plates, which are not always conspicuous. In addition, the fragmentation of the dorsal arm plates is not always very evident, the serration of the AdShSp is sometimes conspicuous and sometimes not. Finally, the ventral arm plates are usually triangular. Other Ophiocnida species have scattered spines on the dorsal disc as in O. californica; however, they differ in having all oral papillae rounded and small (vs. AdShSp slightly serrated and rectangular in O. californica), non-fragmented dorsal arm plates (vs. fragmented), and tentacle scales arranged perpendicularly (vs. arranged in parallel) (e.g., Gondim et al. 2013; Granja-Fernández et al. 2014). Due to these differences, a revision of the generic placement of O. californica is needed.Published as part of Granja-Fernández, Rebeca, Hendrickx, Michel E., Rangel-Solís, Pedro Diego & López-Pérez, Andrés, 2023, Deep-sea Ophiuroidea (Echinodermata) collected during the TALUD cruises in western Mexico, pp. 1-71 in Zootaxa 5259 (1) on page 57, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5259.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/779498