456 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XVIII, October 1964 
The gonad almost fills the rest of the body 
cavity, and consists of two bunches of sparsely 
branched genital caeca, lying one to each side of 
the dorsal mesentery. The caeca are orange in 
colour, with white thickenings scattered along 
their length. 
Radial muscles are represented as broad flat 
straps. The retractor muscles are each split into 
two or three narrow bands, joined by a thin web 
of tissue for most of their length. 
In the specimen dissected a commensal pinno- 
therid crab was found in the last branch of the 
intestine, half way along the body cavity. The 
crab appeared to have caused little damage to 
adjacent tissues, apart from a slight rupturing of 
the wall of the intestine. This rupture might 
conceivably have been caused during preserva- 
tion or transport of the specimens. 
I found no calcareous deposits in the body 
wall or in the tube feet, although end plates are 
known to occur in the tube feet of this species. 
Due to the work of Deichmann (1941) and 
Heding and Panning (1954), the systematic 
position of this species is now quite clear. 
DISTRIBUTION: Deichmann (1941) notes that 
Athyonidium chilensis is probably "the most 
common phyllophorid known from Chile.” The 
species is also found along the coast of Peru. 
The present locality record does not affect the 
known distribution pattern, and it is apparent 
that this species is reasonably common in the 
Macrocystis zone, immediately below low-tide 
mark. 
Family CUCUMARIIDAE 
Subfamily Cucumariinae 
Genus Cladodactyla Brandt, 1835 emend. 
Panning, 1940 
diagnosis: Tentacles 10. Calcareous ring 
small, without bifurcating processes. Skin de- 
posits merely plates. The plates are thin, smooth, 
developed from forked rods. (After Panning, 
1949.) 
type SPECIES: Cladodactyla cro cea (Lesson). 
REMARKS: The genus Cladodactyla contains 
three species at the present time. C. senegal- 
ensis Panning and C. monodi Cherbonnier are 
known from Dakar and the Cameroons coast, 
respectively. 
Cladodactyla crocea (Lesson) 
Cucumaria crocea Lesson, 1830, p. 153, pi. 52, 
figs. 1 , la; Theel, 1886^, pp. 58, 110, pi. 12, 
figs. 1, 2; Ludwig, 1898^, p. 15, pi. 1, figs. 
6—13 (list of references); Bell, 1908, p. 2; 
Ekman, 1925, p. 75, figs. 15, 16; Deich- 
mann, 1947, p. 331. 
Cladodactyla crocea Panning, 1940, p. 172; Pan- 
ning, 1949, p. 413; Panning, 1957, p. 27, 
figs. 12, 13. 
DIAGNOSIS: Thin-skinned, small (up to 100 
mm), dendrochirotes with equal-sized tentacles. 
Tube feet restricted to the ambulacra, larger 
ventrally, smaller and more numerous dorsally 
(when present); usually arranged into double 
rows. Calcareous ring simple, with no posterior 
processes. Deposits perforated rods or platelets, 
reduced or lacking in older specimens. Tube feet 
with end plates. Brood-protecting. 
MATERIAL examined: Sta. 73, 24 specimens. 
REMARKS: Cladodactyla crocea is one of the 
best-known of the holothurians from southern 
waters, and I have little to add to the thorough 
accounts given by the workers listed in the syn- 
onymy above. The specimens in the present col- 
lection range in total length from 10 mm to 27 
mm. Colour in alcohol is light brown to dark 
greyish-brown. In some specimens, tube feet 
are entirely lacking from the dorsal radii. Theel 
(1886) noted that in the 20-40 mm specimens, 
dorsal tube feet are wanting, but this is not the 
case in all of the specimens in the present col- 
lection. I found no juveniles on the dorsal sur- 
face of any specimens, although Theel’s (1886) 
material, which was collected at about the same 
time of the year, included some specimens carry- 
ing broods of juveniles. Examination of the 
gonad in the larger specimens in my collection 
indicated that sexual maturity had not as yet 
been reached. 
Calcareous deposits proved to be very rare, 
the tentacles sometimes containing isolated per- 
forated rods in the smallest specimens (Fig. 1, 
1 ) . In larger specimens the tentacle rods were 
mainly absent. With the exception of the end 
plates in the tube feet (Fig. 1, 2), body wall 
deposits tend to be very scarce or lacking al- 
together. In a single 14 mm specimen I found 
but three deposits in the skin of the dorsal side 
(Fig. 1 ,3). These took the form of perforated 
platelets. 
