Ophiopholis bakeri McClendon 1909

Ophiopholis bakeri McClendon, 1909 Fig. 18G‒L Ophiopholis bakeri McClendon, 1909: 41, pl. 5, figs. 26‒27.— H.L. Clark 1911: 121‒123, fig. 46.— Ziesenhenne 1937: 224.— Boolotian & Leighton 1966: 7‒8, fig. 28.— Kyte 1969a: 1729, 1732, 1738.— Hendler 1996: 157‒159, fig. 7.17.— Lambert & Austin 2007: 110, 113‒114, figs. 62‒63. See Hendler (1996) for other synonymous records. Material examined. 150 individuals at three stations. TALUD XIV, Sta. 4, 2 ind. (ICML-EMU-11043-B); Sta. 10, 10 ind. (ICML-EMU-13003); Sta. 15, 1 ind. (ICML-EMU-11043-A); Sta. 20, 22 ind. (ICML-EMU-11042-B), 87 ind. (ICML-EMU-11041), and 10 ind. (ICML-EMU-11042-A). TALUD XV, Sta. 23, 18 ind. (ICML-EMU-11043-C). Comparative material. MCZ OPH-7061, 2 ind (Supplementary file 2). Material identified by McClendon. The lot MCZ OPH-7061 deposited at the MCZ has a label with the legend: “Univ. Calif. Dep. Zool. Type?”. However, it does not have any additional information (e.g., locality, collection date) or any other note suggesting that it is, in fact, the type material of O. bakeri. McClendon, who originally described the species (McClendon 1909), is actually the person who identified lot MCZ OPH-7061 (pers. comm. Penny Benson 2016). According to McClendon (1909), the type material of O. jolliense was deposited at the University of California Museum but despite an exhaustive search for this material, we did not locate it in this museum (pers. comm. Erica Clites & Carole Hickman 2018) or in any other institution (i.e., LACM, MCZ, NHMD, USNM; pers. comm. Penny Benson 2016, Rich Mooi 2018). Lot MCZ OPH-7061 might have been sent to MCZ as a loan or a gift. Description (ICML-EMU-11041). DD = 8 mm. Disc round, weakly indented interradially. Dorsal disc covered by scales and short multifid spines, marginal and central spines elongated. Primary plates not evident. RS scalene triangular, covered by multifid spines (often shorter than on other parts of the disc), separated by scales and multifid spines, except distally (Fig. 18G). Ventral interradii covered by elongated multifid spines (Fig. 18H). OSh broader than long, diamond-shaped. Madreporite larger and rounder than OSh.AdSh curved, separated in front of OSh. Jaws bearing numerous oral papillae; one AdShSp rounded; one 2AdShSp oblong, the longest; LOPa 1‒2 oblong; TPas numerous, clustering, short. vT rectangular (Fig. 18I). Arms slender. DAP as broad as long, rounded, surrounded by rounded symmetrical plates, contiguous (Fig. 18J). VAP longer than broad, pentagonal, separated.LAP with up to 4‒5 ArSp, blunt tip, serrated, elongated (approximately two arm segments in length), some first dorsalmost rudimentary, second dorsalmost the longest, ventralmost the shortest, distalmost arm spines hooked, hyaline. Tentacle pores with one oval TSc (Fig. 18K). Color pattern dorsally and ventrally beige-whitish (ethanol preservation) (Fig. 18G‒L). Habitat and distribution. British Columbia, Canada, Washington, Oregon, and California, USA, and northern Mexican Pacific; 18‒ 1,204 m depth, coral, sponges, rocky, sandy, and muddy substrates (McClendon 1909; H.L. Clark 1911; Hendler 1996; Lambert & Austin 2007; Granja-Fernández et al. 2015). The material examined was collected off western Baja California Sur and in the northern Gulf of California; 325‒871 m depth, associated with sponges. Remarks. Many of the ethanol preserved specimens had dorsally and ventrally beige-whitish coloration. Nevertheless, we also observed that some preserved specimens displayed a rosaceous or brown coloration. This species is known to display a wide variety of colors: pink, red, gray, and yellowish-white (Hendler 1996; Lambert & Austin 2007). Moreover, multifid spines in the center of the disc can be present or not, and some specimens can have up to six arm spines. The Ophiopholis species distributed in the eastern tropical Pacific (northern Mexico) are Ophiopholis bakeri and Ophiopholis longispina, which differentiate by: 1) dorsal disc covered with scales and short multifid spines in O. bakeri vs. covered with scales and long spines in O. longispina, 2) RS covered with multifid spines in O. bakeri vs. RS without spines in O. longispina, and 3) LAP with up to 4‒5 ArSp, some first dorsalmost rudimentary, second dorsalmost the longest in O. bakeri vs. up to 6‒7 ArSp, first dorsalmost the longest in O. longispina. On the other hand, Ophiopholis aculeata (Linnaeus, 1767) and Ophiopholis kennerlyi Lyman, 1860 have been reported from the North Pacific and differ from O. bakeri by their granule-covered dorsal disc and their angular accessory arm plates (Lambert & Austin 2007).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 pages 58-60, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5259.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/779498