ANNOTATED LIST. 159 
Opheodesoma glabra. 
Synapta glabra Semper. 1868. Holothurien, p. 12, pl. ii; pl. iv, fig. 8. 
Opheodesoma glabra Fisher. 1907. Hawaiian Hol., p. 723. 
Semon took two specimens of this synaptid near Thursday Island, but we did not 
meet with it. It is known from a number of stations in the East Indian region and also 
from Fiji. 
Opheodesoma grisea. 
Synapta grisea Semper. 1868. Holothurien, p. 11, pl. iv, figs. 6, 7. 
Opheodesoma grisea Visher. 1907. Hawaiian Hol., p. 723. 
This species, like Kuapta godeffroyi, bears a close superficial resemblance to Synapta 
maculata, and the five specimens we found on the southeastern reef-flat at Mer were sup- 
posed to be that species until the calcareous particles were examined. Sluiter (1894) 
reports that the specimens Semon took near Thursday Island were ‘‘ganz, gleichmassig 
weiss,”’ and designates them as a variety alba. It seems to me possible, however, that they 
had bleached after preservation, and it will be proper to ignore the variety until specimens 
white in life are met with. There are many records of grisea in the East Indian region and 
several for northern Australia, but it is not yet known from the western Indian Ocean, nor 
from any of the Pacific islands. The record given in my Apodous Holothurians (1908, p. 75) 
of ‘‘Samoa”’ is due to a typographical error for Samau. 
Polylectana kefersteinii. 
Synapta kefersteinii Selenka. 1867. Zeit. f. w. Zool., 17, p. 360, pl. xx, figs. 120, 121. 
Polyplectana kefersteiniti H. L. Clark. 1908.1 Apod. Hol., pp. 16, 77. 
This fine synaptid is common at the Hawaiian Islands, where I collected specimens 
both at Lahaina, Maui, and at Hilo, Hawaii, in December 1913. Thence it ranges west- 
ward to the Red Sea and southward to Tahiti (where I took a specimen, August 5, 1913), 
Samoa, and the Murray Islands. At Mer three specimens were found on the southeastern 
reef-flat, among dead stag-horn corals. In life they were dark brown dorsally and lighter 
beneath; each digit of the tentacles had a median dark streak. 
The growth-changes of kefersteinii are very interesting, particularly as shown in the 
number of tentacles, but unfortunately they are as yet very imperfectly known. Ludwig 
(1888) reports 11 specimens from Amboina, of which one had only 15 tentacles, six had 20, 
one had 22, two had 26, and one 27, but he says nothing about the size of these individuals, 
so it is impossible to determine whether there is any definite correlation between size (or 
age) and the number of tentacles. The material in the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, 
however, throws some light on the matter and indicates that the full number of tentacles 
is not developed until the animal is well grown. Of 22 specimens available, from Samoa, 
Tahiti, Mer, and the Hawaiian Islands, one has 16 tentacles, two have 18, two have 20, 
and one has 21; these are all small specimens, about 50 to 100 mm. long in their alcoholic 
condition. There are three individuals of small or moderate size with 22 tentacles, four 
about half-grown with 23, one, also half-grown, with 24, seven (from more than half-grown 
to very large) with 25, and one big one has 26. The correlation between size and number 
of tentacles is by no means exact, for the smallest specimen has 20 tentacles and the largest 
25. This largest specimen is about 300 mm. long and 15 to 18 mm. in diameter, in the 
preserved condition, which would indicate a length in life of probably more than 600 mm. 
Many of the specimens with fewer than 25 tentacles have one or more of them smaller 
than the others, sometimes merely a little bud with no evident branches. 
1 The date on the title-page is 1907, but the actual date of publication was January 1908. 
