ANNOTATED LIST. 175 
Holothuria axiologa! sp. nov. 
(Plate 38, Figures 1 to 13.) 
Length in life about 600 mm.; width about 100 mm., and vertical thickness about 
75 mm. Body somewhat depressed with ventral surface flattened, everywhere well cov- 
ered with the small pedicels, which are quite uniformly distributed and show no serial 
arrangement. No tubercles and no papille. Mouth oral in position, surrounded by 20 
large tentacles. Calcareous ring massive but not peculiar; radial pieces much larger than 
interradial. Polian vessels 2, each with a number of branches. Madreporic canal single. 
No indication of teeth or calcified papillae at anus. No Cuvier’s organs. 
Calcareous particles of body-wall of two kinds, tables and fenestrated eggs, oblongs and 
buttons; those of the dorsal side are more open and delicate than the stouter ones of the 
ventral surface. Tables (pl. 38, figs. 3-8) fairly numerous but not crowded, very diver- 
sified, hardly two exactly alike; most complete tables have a disk 0.030 to 0.060 mm. across 
with a large central hole (divided by the table-legs into 4) and a peripheral series of 10 to 
12 holes; few tables have the peripheral holes in any number, the disk consisting of a 
simple ring with projecting teeth on its outer margin (the distal elongation and fusing of 
these teeth form the peripheral holes); spire of 4 rods and 1 cross-beam, 0.030 to 0.050 
mm. high, with numerous (28 to 40) teeth around top and down on distal part of sides; 
top of spire 0.020 to 0.035 mm. in diameter. Fenestrated bodies (pl. 38, figs. 9-11) egg- 
shaped or more oblong, 0.050 to 0.075 mm. in length and 0.020 to 0.030 mm. in diameter, 
hardly two exactly alike and few perfectly symmetrical; with the buttons (pl. 38, figs. 
12, 13), they are densely crowded in the dermis below the tables. Pedicels with very 
few, widely branched supporting rods (pl. 38, fig. 2), about 0.100 mm. long; in place of 
the rods are more or less incomplete fenestrated bodies; terminal plates well developed. 
Tentacle-rods (pl. 38, fig. 1) not crowded, straight or curved, even C-shaped, 0.050 to 0.200 
mm., not perforated either at middle or near ends, but usually somewhat prickly, at least 
at the tips. Color in life, yellowish brown dorsally with dark-brown pedicels, whitish with 
yellow pedicels ventrally and on sides where the shades merge. There is little change in 
alcohol, except the loss of any really yellow tints. 
Holotype: M. C. Z. No. 1015; in 3 to 5 meters off northwestern reef, Mer, Murray 
Islands, Torres Strait, October 25, 1913. 
This fine big holothurian was the source of some dispute between the two native 
fishermen who brought it to me; one maintained it was a “‘curry-fish”’ (usually H. scabra), 
but the other said it was a ‘‘white-fish,” a form of béche-de-mer of which I failed to get a 
sample. It is certainly not H. scabra nor very closely allied to that species, nor can I find 
any other to which it is any nearer. The specimen was brought in towards the end of our 
stay at Mer, when the available supply of alcohol was nearly exhausted. It was therefore 
not practicable to preserve so huge a holothurian, and hence I was obliged to throw away 
a large part of it, retaining only the anterior and posterior ends. 
Holothuria coluber. 
Semper. 1868. Holothurien, p. 90, pl. xxviii; pl. xxx, figs. 28a, b. 
This fine species is very common at Mer, and we also saw it at Erub and at Thursday 
Island. It was originally described from the Philippines and has apparently been met 
with since only by Saville Kent, who found it common on the inshore reefs of tropical 
Queensland, and by the Siboga, whose collectors took a single specimen on Borneo Bank. 
Kent (1893) gives an excellent photograph and also a colored figure, and his statements 
regarding occurrence, habits, and worthlessness for béche-de-mer are fully confirmed by 
1 ag.éAoyoc =remarkable, of obvious application to this notable species. 
