Volume 2

A history of British starfishes, and other animals of the class Echinodermata / [Edward Forbes].

  • Edward Forbes
Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A history of British starfishes, and other animals of the class Echinodermata / [Edward Forbes]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    HOLOTHURIAD EE. PENTACT:. Cucumaria fusiformis. Forbes and Goodsir. Specific Character—Body much elongated, cylindrical, white, rough with papille ; suckers numerous, alternate, in five regular rows; tentacula ten, short, triangularly pinnate. Holothuria fusiformis, ForBES and Goopsir, Atheneum, No. 618. Tus is the longest, in proportion to its thickness, of all the British Sea-Cucumbers. It is a small species, measur- ing about an inch in length. It is rounded, and tapers slightly towards each extremity. The pinkish-white skin is covered with plumose papille, and the five rows of suckers are not prominent. The suckers are doubly ranged, and alternate in each row, generally above thirty. The tentacula are ten, short, somewhat triangular, white, and pmnated to their bases. It is a sluggish animal, and not fond of changing form. We dredged several specimens in the Shetland seas during the summer of 1839. The specimens examined, when dissected, presented the respiratory trees rather simpler than in its allies, the in- testinal canal well developed, and the teeth rather small ; but we found no traces of genital tubes or of an cesopha- geal sac. ‘The examples were probably young specimens ; but there can be no question of the distinctness of the