Could someone help me in identifying the brittle star in attached photo. It was collected from massive coral colonies mostly Porites spp and Cyphastrea spp in Kuwait, Arabian Gulf.
My guess is that this is Ophiolepis. quite possibly superba. the faint central disc markings are suggestive of the bolder marking of the more usual indo-pacific version of superba. O. lepis moves quite fast.
A different individual clearly since all arms are intact for this one. And it seems to be a different species. For this one the arms are not tapering to the same extent, arm spines are more prominent and there are bursae visible that are not present in the 1st example shown. .......... maybe another specimen/species by mistake?
Please see attached closer view of the disc, arm (oral and adoral view) of the first specimen which I posted earlier. Hope the pictures are useful for id. Many thanks! in advance.
Without seeing the specimen itself under a microscope I'm not absolutely certain but I would now suspect Ophiolepis unicolor ...... very similar to O. superba except for the markings . The structure in the oral view is clearer than for the dorsal view and the plates resemble superba/cincta. If you can get hold of H.L. Clark 1938 (in ref. list of Clark & Rowe 1971) then that should have drawings. Unlikely though as this is 500+ pages. It's one of the few refs. I don't have. However with the specimen, preferably oven dried, under a microscope and C&R 1971 @ p.129 you should be able to determine it.
I was mistaken in recalling O. superba being a fast mover ..... was thinking of Ophioarachna species