Holothuria monotuberculata Quoy & Gaimard, 1833: 131, pl. 432, fig 1.
Stichopus monotuberculatus; Cherbonnier, 1952: 22, textfig. 6a-t, pl. 3, fig. 4; Cherbonnier, 1955: 161; Cherbonnier, 1959: 250; Cherbonnier, 1967: 57; Stock, 1968: 92; James, 1969: 61; James & Pearse, 1969: 102 ; Clark & Rowe, 1971: 178; Tortonese, 1979: 275; Humes, 1980: 37, 72, 120; Price, 1982: 11; Marsh et al., 1993: 64; Rowe & Gates, 1995: 325; Massin, 1996: 163, figs 9A-K, 10A-F, pl. 1C, D (colour plate); Rowe & Richmond, 1997: 306; Liao, 1998: 80; Massin et al., 2002: 95; Samyn, 2003, figs 37A-K, 55D (map), pl. 4C (colour plate); Rowe & Richmond, 2004: 3305.
Stichopus cf montuberculatus; Samyn, 2000: 15; Samyn & Vanden Berghe, 2000: 18, 31, pl. 2E (colour plate); Marsh & Morrison, 2004: 339 .
Stichopus variegatus; Clark, 1920: 147; Clark, 1946: 418; Codoceo, 1974: 53; Castilla & Rozbaczylo, 1987: 211.
? Stichopus monotuberculatus; Erhardt & Moosleitner, 1997: 1186 (colour plate); Paulay, 2003: 577.
Stichopus chloronotus; Di Salvo et al., 1988: 460 (non Stichopus chloronotus Brandt, 1835).
Type data: EcHh 1206; Mauritius; coll. Quoy, Gaimard & Durville, 1829; unknown depth; poorly preserved; well relaxed; eviscerated; ventro-longitudinal dissection.
Anatomical description: 52 mm long; 7-20 mm wide; bivium arched; trivium flattened; dorsal body wall beige, slightly mottled with brown; ventral body wall beige; tentacles beige; color of dorsal appendages could not be determined; ventral tube feet beige; arrangement of dorsal appendages could not be determined due to contraction of specimen; ventral tube feet dispersed all over surface; bivium and trivium not separated by a lateral fringe of appendages; body wall rough to the touch; body wall < 1 mm thick; tentacles small, 18 counted; radial plates with slightly indented posterior side; interradial plates narrower than radial ones; size and number of tentacle ampullae could not be determined; Polian vesicles not observed; stone canals not observed; gonad not observed; longitudinal muscles bifid and wide; Cuvierian tubules not observed.
Ossicle description: tentacles with curved spiny rods, occassionaly bifurcating; dorsal body wall with tables with smooth disc perforated by four large holes and 0-1 ring of peripheral holes, low spire ending in spiny crown and roesttes of various forms; ventral body wall with tables similar to those of the dorsal body wall but with their disc larger and more spiny and with C-shaped rods; dorsal and ventral appendages with tables, perforated plates and rods with perforated and enlarged median process; longitudinal muscles with smooth, occasionaly branching rods; ossicle assemblage of cloacal retractor muscles, gonad, cloaca, respiratory tree, rete mirabile and gut were not assessed.
Known distribution: Madagascar, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Red Sea (Djibouti, Gulf of Suez, Ethiopia), Persian Gulf, Australia (NE ; W, NW and N coast, QLD, NSW, WA, NT, Tasman Sea), Tonga, Mariana Islands (Guam)
Taxonomic decision: valid species (confirmed after re-examination of all the holotype and other voucher specimens).
Remarks: S. monoturberculatus and S. herrmanni replace S. variegatus which is now considered as a synonym of S. horrens. In the literature there are many citations of S. variegatus that cannot be allocated to S. monotuberculatus or S. herrrmanni.
For original description click here.
{morfeo 58}
