Sclerothyone velligera ( Ludwig and Heding, 1935 )

Thandar, Ahmed S., 2008, Additions to the holothuroid fauna of the southern African temperate faunistic provinces, with descriptions of new species, Zootaxa 1697 (1), pp. 1-57 : 16-18

Sclerothyone velligera ( Ludwig and Heding, 1935)

Cucumaria ? velligera Ludwig & Heding, 1935: 190 , text-fig. 49.

Sclerothyone velligera Thandar, 1989: 295 (syn. & records), figs. 3 & 9b; 2006:17, text-fig. 5.

Type Perhaps in Bonn , Germany .

Type locality S.W. of Cape Point , WCP , 318-365.

Material examined

SAM-A27989, UCT Ecol. Surv., Still Bay Shelf Transect , St. SST 12, 35 o 22 S, 22 o 31 E, 20.vi. 1972, 200 m, 2 spec.

Description

Both specimens barrel- to U-shaped, larger one 8 mm along ventrum, 2 mm wide in mid-body. Colour in alcohol off-white, slightly yellowish along ambulacra. Podia of larger specimen in a single zigzag row per ambulacrum, giving impression of two rows per ambulacrum; smaller specimen with podia in double rows in ventral ambulacra, in single or double series dorsally. Calcareous ring and spicules identical to east coast form (see Thandar 2006).

Distribution East and south-west coast of S.A., 200- 775 m.

Remarks

This species was originally based on two specimens from the Cape of Good Hope at 318 m (see Ludwig & Heding 1935). Thandar (1989) recorded it from a single specimen from south-west of Cape Point, at 360-365 m and in 2006 from deeper waters (710-775 m) off the east coast. Both Ludwig & Heding (1935) and Thandar (1989) describe tables provided with a handle on one side. These are absent in the current material as is the case in the east coast form of the species (see Thandar 2006). This difference is perhaps an intra-specific variation as there are no other differences between the holotype and the more recent material, except for the absence of anal teeth in the current material.