ABSTRACT
Most brittlestars exhibit negative phototaxis, movement of food particles along their arms using their podia, and the ability to right themselves when inverted. This investigation was precipitated by the discovery of a specimen of Ophionereis reticulata, that had lost an entire arm, the corresponding ossicles of its disk, and the entire fleshly portion of its disk. The continuity of its neural ring had thus been interrupted and approximately 25 percent of it was missing. The four remaining arms were attached to the remaining eight central ossicles, which took on the configuration of a linear bar since their circular continuity had been interrupted. This specimen proved to be useful for investigating the role of the neural ring in maintaining and integrating the behaviors listed above.
