86 the apodous holothurians 



Synaptula reticulata. 



Synapta reticulata Semper, 1868, p. 13. Calcareuus ring and particles, pi. iv. figs. 4-5. 

 Chondrodcea reticulata Ostergren, 1898&. 



Length. — 100-160 mm. 



Color. — Clear violet or brown, reeticulated with dark brown; or {vAv.via- 

 cnlatn Sluiter '88) with irregular blotches of dark violet or less often chestnut- 

 brown, sometimes forming irregular broad bands; or (Lampert '89&) light gray 

 with five narrow longitudinal, dark violet stripes; or (var. nigropurpurea Bed- 

 ford '99(7) dark, without markings, "crimson-black" when alive. 



Distribution. — Eeported from Bohol (Semper); Mermaid Straits (Lam- 

 pert); Isle of Pines, New Caledonia (Bedford), and numerous stations in the 

 Dutch East Indies (Koehler, Sluiter). 



Remarks. — Numerous specimens of this species have been examined by 

 Sluiter, and he regards it as well characterized. Both he and Lampert report 

 individual.s with 12 tentacles, and Sluiter's variety, maculota, has 11. There 

 is certainly room for suspicion that young individuals (and perhaps adults) of 

 two or more species are confused under the name reticulata. In its habits, this 

 Synaptid is remarkable for making its home on living corals, upon which it 

 creeps about very slowly. In its clinging closely to rough surfaces by means 

 of the anchors and its power to climb up a vertical glass plate, reticulata re- 

 sembles hydriformis. 



LEPTOSYNAPTA Verrill, 1867. 



Synapta Ostergren, 1898. 



Tentacles pinnate, 10-13. Digits usually four or more on each side (rarely 

 three or only two or none). Cartilaginous ring wanting. Polian vessel usually 

 single, rarely more than one. Stone-canal single, unbranched. Sense-organs never 

 in form of pigment-eyes, but occur as minute cups, probably olfactory, on inner 

 face of stalk of tentacles. Stock of anchors finely toothed, but not branched; 

 arms usually with upwardly or outwardlj^ projecting teeth on tlie outer edge; 

 vertex smooth. Anchor-plates oval or somewhat elongated, with lai-ge central 

 hole, surrounded by six other large holes, usually more or less dentate, and 

 two large and several small smooth holes at the narrow jiosterior end, but 

 without any arched bow crossing the outer surface; at the broad end there are 

 often additional dentate holes ; in ooplax the plates are often quite asymmetrical 

 and all the holes more or less smooth. 



Just why Ostergren elected to apply Eschscholtz's name to this group of 

 Synaptids it is difficult to understand. It is clear that Eschscholtz himself 

 intended the large 15-tentacled, oriental forms to be placed here, while he refers 

 Miillor's inhxc.rens to the genus Chiridota. (Of course this is a self-contradic- 

 tion, as inhcBrens does not have digitate tentacles, the one distinguishing char- 



