DISTRIBUTION OF INDO-PACIFIC LITTORAL HOLOTHURIOIDEA 421 



changed to a new form, thus leaving behind the northern and southern 

 parts of this species as a rehct. 



The Ambonesian region, named after one of the Mollucca Islands 

 of Amboina, has become renowned as the locality of pioneer investiga- 

 tions on the Malayan animal world. Although the PhiHppines is among 

 the islands included in this region with the island of Luzon forming 

 a triangle with Borneo and New Guinea within which groups of marine 

 animals may serve as a zoogeographical indicator, the holothurian fauna 

 has not been fully worked out. Carl Semper apparently is the pioneer 

 in the study of Philippine Holothurioidea. Semper's list is not avail- 

 able although that of Scale with 66 different species were taken from 

 Semper's Holothurioidea of the Philippine Archipelago. Not all the 

 holothurioidea listed by Scale from the Philippines were encountered 

 by the writer in his survey of the Echinoderm Fauna of Puerto Galera 

 Bay and adjacent waters, the Basilan Channel around Zamboanga, the 

 Sitankai Reefs of Sulu, the Taganak Barrier Reefs of the Turtle Islands, 

 Coron Bay of Palawan, and the Hundred Islands and vicinity of Linga- 

 yen Gulf. Semper's materials were taken mostly from Bohol and vi- 

 cinity. From the 66 species listed by Scale from Semper's record from 

 the Philippines, 17 species were actually encountered by the writer, 

 leaving 49 species not met yet. So far recorded by the writer from the 

 different localities in the Islands are 48 different species excluding a 

 couple of new species, 13 of which were listed in Scale's check list, 

 leaving at least 35 species not included therein. Adding to the 48 spe- 

 cies recorded by the writer the 49 species listed in Scale's list, which were 

 not so far encountered, plus two new species, there will be, all in all, 

 99 species of littoral holothurians from Philippine waters. Based from 

 the collection of the Allan Hancock Foundation which the writer had 

 the opportunity of going over and identifying, not much is known about 

 the holothurian fauna of the other places of the West Pacific except 

 those of Guam and the Mariana Islands. The holothurian fauna of 

 these islands, as identified by the writer, together with those from the 

 Hawaiian islands of the Central Pacific, are identical in most cases 

 with those of the Philippines. This is also what is to be expected from 

 the other places of the West Pacific area. 



The Indian Ocean (warm waters) comprises the area between east- 

 ern Africa and Western Australia and the East Indies, including the 

 Arabian sea and the Bay of Bengal. Fortunately the holothurian fauna 

 of the area has been worked out by several scientists. There are around 

 28 species of holothurians reported from South Africa represented in 

 10 genera, all but one of which are more or less cosmopolitan or at least 

 tropi-cosmopolitan. Of the 28 species, 12 occur on the Australian coast. 



