Ophiuroidea source details
There are no figures and the brief descriptions may be preliminary, but no later article was published (Stimpson's materials & MS are said to be destroyed by fire in 1871). Date of publication used in literature is either 1855 (the part date) or 1856 (the volume date). The correct date is 1855, the part date, according to Manning (1993), but without detailing his evidence for this. Late 1855 is the best date achievable from study of the part dates sequence in a 1913 index to the journal (qv). As well as the version in volume 10 of the Proceedings, BHL also has an undated unpaginated separate as a 'book' ( https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.51445 )
This is the full description by Stimpson: "Small, rather slender, largest anteriorly, flattened posteriorly. Head ... [details]
Original description by Stimpson (1856: 392-393): "Large, of an uniform dark sepia color above, paler below and ... [details]
SE Atlantic Ocean: False Bay, Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). Known only from the type locality. [details]
SE Atlantic Ocean: Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). [details]
Due to the short unillustrated description of the species, the lack of information concerning the paragnath ... [details]
No records apart from the original description. It seems likely that the type of Nereis mendax is lost as it is not ... [details]
Not stated, unknown. The specific epithet mendax is a Latin adjective meaning 'deceptive', 'lying' or 'false', and ... [details]
Not stated. The specific epithet operta is a Latin participle meaning 'covered', 'enveloped' or 'closed', and could ... [details]
"It inhabits a tube. Common in the circumlittoral zone" (Stimpson, 1856: 392). [details]
"Found among rocks at low-water mark" (Stimpson, 1856: 393). [details]
Day (1967: 293) has a suggested (with a ?) synonymy for Nereis mendax to Pseudonereis variegata (Grube, 1857), a ... [details]
Current taxon was previously considered in the WoRMS database to be a junior synonym of Lysidice collaris Grube, ... [details]
False Bay, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa [details]
Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa [details]
False Bay, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa. A general geolocation for False Bay is 34.22 S, 18.64 E [details]
Simon's Bay, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, SE Atlantic Ocean (gazetteer estimate -34.19°, 18.43°). [details]
Probably lost during the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 (see Smithsonian archive note). [details]