HOLOTHURIOIDEA 



401 



It lives on hard bottom, especially shell bottom, and covers 

 itself with shells and pebbles, being thus very well concealed and 

 easily overlooked among the contents of a dredge. Development 

 unknown. 



In British seas this species is known from the south and west 

 coasts to the Shetland Islands, and to St. Andrews on the east 

 coast. Also recorded from the Rockall Bank (" Porcupine "). 

 It is usually found in rather deep water. It is elsewhere dis- 

 tributed from the Trondhjem Fjord to the Mediterranean ; not 

 known from Greenland or the east coast of N. America. Bathy- 

 metrical distribution ca. 20-1150 m. 



4. Cucumaria saxicola Brady and Robertson. ^ (Fig. 240.) 



(Syn. Cucumaria Montagui Flem., partim ; Colochirus 

 Lacazei Herouard.) 



Body almost cylindrical ; skin rather delicate, relatively thin, 

 the surface smooth. Tube-feet in distinct double rows on the 

 ventral side ; on the dorsal side 

 more in zigzag rows, and they 

 are here reduced to papillae, 

 except at the anterior end. 

 Gonadial tubes ca. 10-60, large, 

 club-shaped. Deposits (Fig. 240) 

 small, rather button-like, with 4 

 main holes and often one or a 

 few at each end ; small scattered 

 star-shaped bodies in the outer 

 layer of the skin. Spicules of 

 tube-feet rods with usually a 

 single series of holes. Colour 

 white, tentacles dark ; when 

 exposed to light it develops 

 black pigment, also on the body. Grows to a length of ca. 15 cm . 



Mainly a littoral form, especially in rock crevices or under 

 stones. Spawning period about May. 



1 With regard to the very intricate synonymy of the species Cucumaria 

 saxicola and Normani, see especially J. H. Orton, "On some Plymouth 

 Holothurians", Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc, x., 1914, p. 225. The present 

 author agrees with the English authors, who have treated this question 

 more recently, that the old name Montagui must be abandoned, the species 

 originally meant therewith being entirely unidentifiable. Also the name 

 Lefevrei Barrois seems unacceptable on account of the contradiction between 

 the description and the figures. 



2d 



Fig. 240. — Deposits of Cucumaria 

 saxicola from the skin and the 

 tube-feet (the lowermost figure). 

 xl80. 



