NO. 2 DEICHMANN : HOLOTHURIOIDEA ; PART II, ASPIDOCHIROTA 299 



as either H. vagabunda, H. leucospilota, or H. fusco-rubra. The Han- 

 cock expeditions have brought back 32 specimens from five stations in 

 the Galapagos, Clarion, and Socorro Islands, with the majority of the 

 material coming from the Galapagos region. A number of particularly 

 large, well developed, mature individuals were collected by an expedi- 

 tion from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to Clipperton Island, 

 indicating that the species obviously is at home in that locality. 



Remarks: When one compares the original descriptions of Holo- 

 thuria vagabunda and H. fusco-rubra, as well as various later, often 

 extremely careful accounts, one is struck by the impossibility of finding 

 any character which definitely separates these two forms. Theel seems 

 to be one of the few workers who claims to have had both "species" be- 

 fore him, and he emphasizes the strong affinities which his species has 

 with H. vagabunda and "//. curiosa." All other writers have identified 

 their material as one or the other of the two forms or have established 

 a new species. Panning examined H. vagabunda but relied on the ac- 

 counts of other authors for his description of H. fusco-rubra, which he 

 placed in an entirely different group. Both "species" came from Hawaii, 

 and as both were based on large individuals about 20 cm long in pre- 

 served condition, one cannot accept one species as the juvenile and the 

 other as the senescent stage of the same form. 



Although little attention has been paid to Brandt's name, Stichopus 

 leucospilota, there is no doubt that it rightly supersedes both Selenka's 

 and Theel's names. Lampert was fully aware of this fact but decided 

 to retain Selenka's name. In 1920, H. L. Clark changed Holothuria 

 vagabunda to Holothuria leucospilota; and since the change has been 

 made and incorporated in his two large works on the Australian echino- 

 derms, it is to be hoped that future writers will follow his decision and 

 also drop Theel's name fusco-rubra. 



Mertensiothuria platei (Ludwig) 

 PI. 3, figs. 10-12 



Holothuria platei Ludwig, 1898, p. 432, pi. 26, figs. 1-14. Deichmann, 

 1924, p. 381, text-fig. 1. Panning, 1935, V, p. 11, text-fig. 118. 



Diagnosis: Large form, up to 23 cm long, stout, cylindrical, with 

 20 large bushy tentacles, and a large number of cylindrical tube feet on 

 the ventrum and somewhat fewer small papillae on the dorsum. Inner 

 anatomy not remarkable. 



Spicules a scattered layer of tables, often overlooked, with disk re- 

 duced to four central holes and a few marginal ones, and an often in- 



