HOLOTHURIANS. 



By F. P. BEDFORD, B. A.. (Cantab.). 



With Figures on Plate XVII. 



OWING to the kindness of Professor F. Jeffrey Bell I had the opportunity of 

 wmking out the Holothurians in Dr WiUey's collection, and I am much indebted to 

 him for advice and assistance, and also for the use of the room which he kindly placed 

 at my disposal at the Natural History Museum. 



The collection comprises 24 species of which two, as far as I can discover, have 

 not hitherto been described ; of one of these there is unfortunately only one specimen, 

 which is not in a sufficiently satisfactory state to render a complete description 

 possible; of the other there are two specimens, and they seem to belong to a species 

 which helps to bridge over the gap between Holothuria cinerascens and Holothuria 

 moebii, and which I venture to call Holothuria willeyi. I also describe distinct local 

 varieties, or topotypes, of Synapta oopla-x and S. reticulata, both of which were 

 represented by numerous specimens. 



I. Family. SYNAPTIDAE. 



1. Synapta ooplax v. Marenzeller, var. laevis nov. var. Fig. 3 a, b, c. 



Reference: v. Marenzeller. Verh. Zool. bot. Ges. Wien, 1881, p. 4, Taf. iv. fig. 1. 

 Loc. Sandal Bay, Lifu, Loyalty Islands. 



Twenty-six specimens up to 15 cm. long; colour light reddish in spirit. They differ 

 from the description given by v. Marenzeller in a few details ; as far as I have observed, 

 the holes of the anchor plates invariably have smooth margins with the exception 

 That very rarely a pair of small teeth may be present, situated opposite to one 

 another; the teeth figured and described by him as surrounding some of the holes 

 do not seem to occur in this variety ; biscuit-shaped spicules very common on the 

 ambulacra, these occur only in the longitudinal radial muscles and not in the body-wall. 



The Polian vesicles varied in number from 1 to 4 in the specimens dissected 

 (about 6). In all other respects the specimens agree with those of v. Marenzeller. 



