OUR KNOWLEDGE OP NEW ZEALAND HOLOTHURIANS. 



109 



1898. Caudina coriacea, Dendy, Joiirn. Linn. Soc, Zool. vol. xxvi. pp. 456-464, pi. 29. 



figs. 1-13. 

 1898. Caudina coriacea, Ludwig, Hanib. Magalh. Sammelreise, ITolothurien, pp. 63-64. 

 1905. Caudina pulchella, Remy Perrier, Ann. Sc. Nat., Zool. 9^ s^r. i. 1905, pp. 117-120, 



pi. 5. figs. 14-17. 

 1905. Caudina coriacea, var. brevicauda, R(5my Perrier, Ann. Sc. Nat., Zool. 9° ser. i. 



1905, pp. 121-123. 



In July 1896, immense numbers o£ young specimens o£ this animal were 

 thrown up on the beach at New Brighton, near Christchurch. Thirteen 

 months later it was again cast up in the same locality in large numbers, 

 together with countless millions o£ other marine animals, such as Cucumaria 

 ocnoides, as already described by one o£ us. " The remarkable Holothurian 

 Caudina coriacea was £ound in enormous numbers, and the specimens were 

 nearly all adult, while on a previous occasion, as already mentioned, large 

 numbers o£ young specimens were thrown up, and no adults. The American 

 Caudina arenata is known to bury itsel£ in the sand with only the tip o£ the 

 tail projecting, and doubtless the same is true o£ our species, so that only a 

 considerable disturbance o£ the sea-bed would cause it to be thrown on shore 

 in such quantities.'^* 



The characters which Perrier considers distinctive of his Caudina pidchella 

 and o£ his variety brevicauda appear to us to be too slight for purposes of 

 specific or even varietal distinction. The diameter o£ the caudal appendage 

 would vary according to its state of contraction, and would always be a very 

 unsafe character to depend upon. For a similar reason the thickness of the 

 integument would also vary. As for the supposed difference in spiculation 



Fio'. B. 



Spicules of Caudina coriacea (x 346). — All the spicules in this figure were from the 

 integument of one specimen. (Camera drawing".) 



we doubt its existence, for the integument of each example of C. coriacea 

 that we have examined contained every variety of spicule shown in the 



* Dendy, " Notes on a remarkable Collection of Marine Animals lately found on the New 

 Brighton Beach, near Christchurch," Trans. N.Z. Inst. yoI. xxi. p. 323. 



LINN. JOURN. ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXX. 9 



