Taeniogyrus maculatus (H. L. Clark, 1921 )

O’Loughlin, P. Mark & VandenSpiegel, Didier, 2010, A revision of Antarctic and some Indo-Pacific apodid sea cucumbers (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea: Apodida), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 67, pp. 61-95 : 86

Taeniogyrus maculatus (H. L. Clark, 1921)

Figure 14 ; table 3

Trochodota maculata H. L. Clark, 1921: 163 , pl. 36 figs 14–21.— H. L. Clark, 1946: 460.— Rowe, 1976: 203–205, table 1.—Rowe (in Rowe and Gates) 1995: 268.—Smirnov, 1997: 16.

Material examined. E Australia, New South Wales, Newcastle, Swansea Channel , 3 m, 30 Aug 1988, AM J21895 (9); same lot, RBINS IG 31 459 (1 whole for SEM images) .

Diagnosis. Up to 21 mm long (preserved; 26 mm long in Clark 1921); body wall papillate, semi-translucent; tentacles 10, 3 pairs of digits (4–5 in Clark 1921); curved to slightly bracket-shaped tentacle rods; wheels with 6 spokes, spokes broad at rim, narrow at hub, teeth on inner rim of wheels in continuous series; sigmoid hooks with fine spinelets on outer surface of projecting pointed hook, hooks scattered in body wall (hooks in small groups and scattered in Clark 1921); ciliated funnels along base of mid-dorsal mesentery; single sac-like polian vesicle; gonad comprises 2 elongate sacs (ossicle measurements in Table 3).

Colour (preserved). Pale to dark reddish-brown. Colour live is pink with numerous minute dark spots ( Clark 1921).

Type locality. N Australia, Torres Strait , Murray Is, Mer, reef flat .

Distribution. Tropical Australia, 0–20 m (Rowe in Rowe and Gates 1995).

Remarks. Taeniogyrus maculatus (H. L. Clark) is not an Antarctic apodid species but is included here to clarify its generic assignment. The figure of a wheel in H. L. Clark (1921) indicates that the wheel was viewed from the outside and the continuity of teeth around the inner rim obscured by the spokes. This led H. L. Clark to wrongly conclude that the distribution of the teeth was discontinuous. Rowe (1976) followed H. L. Clark (1921). In this study all wheels have continuous series of teeth.

Figures

Figure 14. SEM images for specimen of Taeniogyrus maculatus (H. L. Clark, 1921) (Swansea Channel, E Australia; RBINS IG 31 459 ex AM J21895). a, calcareous ring plates (with hook contaminants); b, wheels from body wall; c, hooks from body wall. d, montage photographs of ossicles of Taeniogyrus purpureus (Lesson, 1830) (Strait of Magellan; USNM 1004241); rods from tentacle, and wheels and hook from body wall.