Holothuria ophidiana Quoy & Gaimard, 1833: 134; Cherbonnier, 1952: 31, pl. 3, fig. 5, text fig. 11d-e.
Type data: EcHh 3281; Port Dorey (New Guinea); col. Quoy & Gaimard, 1829; depth unknown; wemm preserved; poorly relaxed; ventro-longitudinal dissection; eviscerated.
Anatomical description: 58 mm long; 12 mm wide; curvature of bivium and trivium could not be determined; dorsal body wall beige; ventral body wall beige; tentacles beige; color of dorsal appendages beige; ventral tube feet beige; arrangement of dorsal appendages could not be determined (probably scattered); arrangement of ventral tube feet could not be determined (probably scattered); bivium and trivium not separated by a lateral fringe of appendages; body wall rough to the touch; body wall 3 mm thick; tentacles small, 7 counted (many cut away); radial plates with slightly indented posterior side; width of interradial plates 2/3 that of radial ones; radial plates twice as long as interradial ones; number of tentacle ampullae could not be determined; tentacle ampullae small; Polian vesicles not observed; stone canals not observed; gonad not observed; longitudinal muscles bifid, wide and thick, free at edges; Cuvierian tubules not observed.
Ossicle description: tentacles with smooth to slightly rugose, unbranched rods of different size; dorsal and ventral body wall with tables with smooth round disc with one central and one ring of peripheral holes, four pilars united by 1 cross beam ending in a narrow crown and buttons with smooth rim, perforated generally by 3 pairs of holes; dorsal and ventral appendages with tables and buttons as in body wall and with centrally thickened and perforated rods; longitudinal and cloacal retractor muscles and cloaca devoid of ossicles; ossicle assemblage of gonad, respiratory tree, rete mirabile and gut was not assessed
Known distribution: known from the type locality only.
Taxonomic decision: junior subjective synonym of Holothuria (Thymiosycia) impatiens (Forsskål, 1775) (confirmed after re-examination of the holotype).
For original description click here.
{morfeo 59}
