Ypsilothuria bitentaculata Ludwig 1893
Creators
Description
Ypsilothuria cf. bitentaculata (Ludwig, 1893)
(Fig. 21 A – C)
Sphaeroturia bitentaculata Ludwig, 1893: 184; 1894: 141, pl. 12, figs 16 – 17, pl. 14, figs 5 – 14. Ypsilothuria bitentaculata attenuata Perrier 1886: Massin, 1996: 44, figs 1 & 2.
Ypsilothuria bitentaculata: Massin & Hendrix, 2011: 422, fig. 7 (synonymy and records before 2011)
Material examined. Non-type material: IE-2007-757 (1 specimen, sampled between Majunga and Cape Saint André); IE-2007-758 (1 specimen, sampled between Majunga and Cape Saint André); IE-2007-762 (1 specimen, sampled in front of Nazendry Bay); IE-2007-765 (2 specimens, sampled in front of Majunga); IE-2007-784 (1 specimen, sampled between Majunga and Cape Saint André); IE-2007-786 (1 specimen, sampled in front of Nazendry Bay); IE-2007-789 (1 specimen, sampled in front of Majumga); IE-2007-780 (5 specimens, sampled in front of Nazendry Bay); IE-2007-792 (2 specimens, sampled between Majunga and Cape Saint André); IE-2007- 795 (1 specimen, sampled between Majunga and Cape Saint André); IE-2007-797 (2 specimens, sampled between Majunga and Cape Saint André); IE-2007-811 (3 specimens, sampled in front of Mahajamba Bay); IE-2007-815 (1 specimen, sampled between Majunga and Cape Saint André); IE-2007-821 (2 specimens, sampled in front of Nazendry Bay).
Remarks. Ypsilothuria is thought to contain only two species: Y. talismani Heding, 1942, which is soft bodied, and Y. bitentaculata (Ludwig, 1893) which is ‘hard as a little echinoid’ according to Heding (1942). The specimens here under study clearly also have the ‘hard’ aspect of Y. bitentaculata (fig. 21A,B). Heding (1942) recognized two subspecies in the latter species: the cosmopolitan Y. bitentaculata attenuata R. Perrier, 1886 and the North Atlantic Y. bitentaculata virginiensis Heding, 1942. For Y. bitentaculata attenuata, Heding (1942) states that it is closely related to the bitentaculata from the Indo-Pacific which he described earlier (Ludwig & Heding, 1935; see also Heding, 1942: textfig 27, 2) based on material collected in the Zanzibar Channel. Our specimens fit well with those descriptions because their body wall thecal plates vary in length between 1500 – 3000 mm (fig. 21C). This is also more or less in agreement with the measurements (scales can exceed 2 mm in length) that Cherbonnier & Féral (1981) provide. On the other hand our specimens differ from other descriptions of Y. bitentaculata from the Indo- Pacific in that their thecal plates are more than twice as long (e.g. Pawson, 1965 reports on an average length of 1200 mm; Thandar (1999) gives a range between 900 and 1270 mm) or from the Mediterranean (Massin, 1996; mean length of plates 1000 mm), in that they often carry two spires, and in that these spires are, with a length up to 1100 mm, considerably higher then those reported by Ludwig (1894) (500 – 580 mm high), Pawson (1965) (500 mm high), Thandar (1999) (500 mm high), Cherbonnier and Féral (1981) (100 mm high) and Massin (1996) (400 – 500 mm high).
Given these differences we were tempted to erect a new species for our material. We however refrained from doing so until the material collected earlier in the Zanzibar Channel could also be studied.
Notes
Files
Files
(3.9 kB)
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:0399e73b6f15b71816d73ee6b1572f67
|
3.9 kB | Download |
System files
(25.9 kB)
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:a1c7a5c3acf7b17642665916816a5778
|
25.9 kB | Download |
Linked records
Additional details
Identifiers
Biodiversity
- Family
- Ypsilothuriidae
- Genus
- Ypsilothuria
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Order
- Dendrochirotida
- Phylum
- Echinodermata
- Scientific name authorship
- Ludwig
- Species
- bitentaculata
- Taxon rank
- species
- Taxonomic concept label
- Ypsilothuria bitentaculata Ludwig, 1893 sec. Samyn & Vandenspiegel, 2016
References
- Ludwig, H. (1893) Vorlaufiger Bericht uber die auf den Tiefsee Fahrten des " Albatross " (Fruhling 1891) im ostlichen Stillen Ocean erbeuteten Holothurien. Zoologische anzeiger, 16, 179 - 185.
- Perrier, R. (1886) Les explorations sous-marines. Paris, 352 pp.
- Massin, C. (1996) Holothuries (Echinodermata) recoltees sur le talus continental Mediterraneen (NW) lors de la campagne DEPRO 96. Mesoglee, 55, 43 - 48.
- Massin, C. & Hendrickx, M. (2011) Deep-water Holothuroidea (Echinodermata) collected during the TALUDcruises off the Pacific coast of Mexico, with the description of two new species. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 82, 413 - 443.
- Heding, S. G. (1942) Holothuroidea II, Aspidochirotida, Elasipoda, Dendrochirotida. The Danish Ingolf Expedition, 4, 1 - 39.
- Ludwig, H. & Heding, S. G. (1935) Die Holothurien der deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition. I. Fußlose und dendrochirote Formen. Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition auf dem Dampfer Valdivia 1898 - 1899. 24 (2), 123 - 214.
- Thandar, A. S. (1999) Deep-sea holothuroids taken by the R. V. Africana II in 1959, from off the West coast of the Cape Penninsula, South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum, 10, 363 - 409.
- Ludwig, H. (1894) Reports on an exploration of the west coasts of Mexico, Central and South America, and off the Galapagos Islands in charge of Alexander Agassiz by the US Fish Commission Steamer Albatros. XII. The Holothurioidea. Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College Cambridge, 17, 1 - 183.