A New Case of Brood=Caring in Holothurians. 



By 



Hiroshi Ohshima, Rigakushi. 

 Fifth High School, Kumamoto. 



During my short stay last summer at Ushibuka, a fishing village on 

 the west coast of Kiüshü, numerous specimens of Pseud oamimis africamis 

 (Semper) were collected for study. The animal can easily be found 

 within crevices of rocks between tide-marks, protruding the anterior part 

 of its body among clusters of Mytilus and very often accompanied by a 

 synaptid, Polyclicira rufcscens. Full-grown specimens, when well stretched 

 out, measure above 80 mm. in length and 15 mm. in diameter, while the 

 tentacles, which are short, scarcely exceed 15 mm. in length. 



On July 29th, I have discovered that a full-grown specimen, previously 

 captured and which has been kept living in a vessel, has given birth to a 

 dozen young individuals. Subsequently, I have succeeded in finding, 

 among my preserved material, two adult specimens containing some youngs 

 inside their body. One of them, 60 mm. long and 1 1 mm. thick and which 

 was collected on July 28th, contained twenty-seven youngs, and the other, 

 65 mm. long and 13 mm. thick and collected on August gth, twenty-five. 

 In both cases, all the youngs were found in the body-cavity of the mother. 

 The three broods mentioned have yielded sixty-four youngs in all. 



All the youngs obtained are practically in the same stage of develop- 

 ment, the size varying from 1.4 mm. by 0.6 mm. to 10 mm. by 2.5 mm. 

 The color is a light grayish violet, much lighter than in the adult but quite 

 intense at the anterior end of body. The body-wall is thin and semi- 

 transparent ; it contains calcareous deposits in scattered distribution. 

 Tentacles ten in number, all of the same size and shape, with a few 

 branches, and containing supporting rods in their wall. Pedicels arranged 



