113 



HOLOTHURIAim 



HOLOTHURIAD^E. 



114 



6. It seems to M. De Blainville that a better character may be 

 drawn from the form of the circle of the solid pieces of the mouth, 

 which is constant, as he believes, in each species; it is however 

 difficult to employ this test. 



7. To judge from a considerable number of JIoMhurice titbuloste 

 seen by M. De Blainville, colour in these animals is very variable, in 

 intensity at least, passing from a nearly deep black to a reddish 

 bordering upon whitish. 



8. With regard to dimensions, besides the difficulty of measuring 

 the animals when captured, it appears that they vary considerably in 

 size, doubtless from age. 



M. De Blainville finally, after a careful analysis of the. different 

 species described by authors, joined to his own observations upon 

 ceven or eight species in a living state, distributes these animals into 

 the following five sections, which he considers to be sufficiently 

 natural, and some of which may be established as genera : 



Flattened, with suckers below 

 Subprismatic. with inferior suckers 

 Body Fusiform, with scattered suckers . 

 I Vermiform, with pinnated tentacles 



Cuvieria. 

 Holothuria. 

 Thyone. 

 Fistularia. 

 \ Subpentagonal, with ambulacriforny suckers . Citcumaria. 



A. Species whose rather short body, more convex and harder above 

 than below, is provided with tentaculiform suckers only on that 

 side, and with fairly developed buccal appendages ; the two 

 aperture* more or less superior. (Cuvitria, Pe>on ; Pioliu, Oken.) 



Ex. H. Phantapus. Scarborough Atcidia of Pennant. ( ' Brit. 

 ZooV) 



B. Species whose coriaceous and rather elongated body is sub- 

 prismatic ; the belly sufficiently distinct from the back, and alone 

 provided with tentaculiform suckers, scattered throughout its 

 whole extent ; the buccal appendages in general but little ramified ; 

 the mouth sub-inferior. (J/olothuria, Lam.) 



Ex. //. tubulosa. 



C. Species whose body, in general elongated, but little coriaceous, 

 cylindrical, or fusiform, is entirely covered with retractile papillae, 

 and whose buccal appendages are very large. (Thyone, Oken ; 

 Mulleria, Fleming.) 



Ex. //. papillota. 



D. Very soft species, but little or not at all coriaceous, very long 

 and vermiform, cylindrical or subpentagonul, provided with 

 cirrhiform papillae, which are very small, scattered, and with the 

 buccal appendages usually regularly pinnated. 



Ex. //. vittata. 



E. Species sufficiently coriaceous, smooth, in general short or mode- 

 rately elongated, regularly pentagonal, with tentaculiform suckers 

 in 10 rows, two at each ambulacral angle. (Citcumaria, Sea- 

 Cucumbers.) 



Ex. H. Cucumit. 



More recently Messrs. Jaeger and Brandt have given a classification of 

 the I/olothuriadte. The characters upon which the system of Messrs. 

 Jseger and Brandt rests are the following : 



1. The absence or the presence of tentaculiform suckers, which 

 M. Brandt, as well as M. Jaeger, calls feet, in common with many 

 zoologists. 



2. The resemblance or dissemblance of those organs. 



3. The existence or absence of the posterior and internal aquiferous, 

 branchial apparatus, which they name lungs, with good reason, because 

 the ambient fluid penetrates therein. 



4. The disposition of the tentaculiform suckers at the surface of the 

 body, all round it or on certain parts only, in regular series, of variable 

 number or irregularly scattered. 



6. The freedom or the adhesion of the respiratory aquiferous tree, 

 divided by M. Jseger into the intestinal lung and the locomotive lung. 



6. The last and least important character is drawn from the form 



of the tentacles which surround the buccal aperture, which leads 



M. Jaoger to his sub-genera and tribes, and M. Brandt to his genera 



and sub-genera. M. Jieger forms, says M. De Blainville, in fact three 



groups only, which he considers as sub-genera, Cucwnaria, Tiedeman- 



iria), and Uolnlhuria, which he separates iuto six tribes, 



i'ia, Bohaltekia, Cuvieria, Ptolui, Ifololkuria, and Trepang, this 



last being in truth held doubtful in the system of M. Brandt, as 



M. Jaeger himself considered it. 



M. Brandt's divisions resolve themselves into seven groups : 



1. Pmtattichoa:, answering to M. De Blainville's division E (Cucu- 

 maria), and subdivided according to the free or fixed state of the 

 aquiferous tree. ^ 



2. Sporadipoda, confounded by M. De Blainville with the ffolothurice 

 properly so called, from which he says they do not differ really, except- 

 ing that the tentaculiform suckers with which the body is covered 

 are similar both above and below. This division contains only two 

 genera, eatabliahed upon the distinction of having the tentacula 

 sheathed or not. 



'',. ////./. '//W, comprising M. De Blainville's division A, separated 

 into two genera, Citvitria und Piolut, containing each two species. 



4. The Apneumtma, which were regarded by M. De Blainville as 

 belonging to the genus Fiitularia of Lamarck, to the number of four 



AT. BIST. DIV. VOL. Til. 



1, Ifolotliuria fhantaput ; 1 ft, its buccal appendages. 2, fTolotliiiria papit- 

 tma ; 2 a, a branch of its buccal appendage* isolated. 3, Hohthnria viltatu. 

 4, Ilolothuria Ciu-urnis. 5, Holuthnria tubulota ; 5 a, its oral extremity; 5 ft, 

 its anal extremity ; i c, some of the cirrhi, of the natural sine. 



or more, the half of which are doubtful, and containing only, for 

 M. Brandt, the genus Oncinolabes. 



5. Schizopodir, which are diversiform species more or less elongated, 

 in which the tentnculiform suckers ane disposed in three or five longi- 

 tudinal rows ; these form but two genera, each containing one species 

 only. 



6. ffeteropodcc, corresponding to M. De Blainville's divisions B and 

 C, that is to say, to his JfolofhurUe properly so called, and to his 

 Atullerice, of which M. Brandt forms seven genera. 



All these are JIulothurice pedata, but 



7. consists of the Non pedatte, forming a great part of M. De Blain- 

 ville's division D, that is to say, the genus Finlularia of Lamarck, 

 separated into three principal genera, two of which, provided with 

 aquiferous trees, are distinguished by the form of their body, and the 

 third has been named Synapta by Escholtz. 



M. De Blainville, in his ' Nouvelles Additions et Corrections' to his 

 ' Actinologie,' published in ] 834, gives the following amended divisioun, 

 which he subdivides, retaining many of the generic names of Jaeger 

 and Brandt. 



