Actinopyga fusca Cherbonnier, 1980: 619, fig. 3A-N.
Type data: EcHh 3077; Reef flat, Maitre Isle (New Caledonia); unknown depth; coll. ORSTOM; 1978; well preserved; well relaxed; eviscerated; ventro-longitudinal dissection; calcareous ring removed.
Anatomical Description: 149 mm long; 52-73 mm wide; bivium arched; trivium distinctly flattened; mouth ventral; anus terminal; dorsal body wall dark brown; ventral body wall dark brown; tentacles with dark brown disc and light brown shaft; color dorsal appendages light brown; ventral tube feet beige; dorsal appendages dispersed regularly over bivium; ventral tube dispersed regularly over trivium but mainly in ambulacrae; bivium and trivium not separated by lateral fringe of appendages; body wall ±8 mm thick, smooth to the touch; 16 tentacles counted; radial plates with slightly convex posterior side; interradial plates 3x narrower than radial ones; length radial plates eqaul to that of interradial ones; number and size of tentacle ampullae could not be determined; number and size of Polian vesicle(s) could not be determined; number and size of stone canal(s) could not observed; longitudinal muscles bifid, wide, free at edges; respiratory trees longer than half of body length; cloaca 32 mm long; Cuvierian tubules not observed.
Ossicle description: Tentacles with slightly rugose rods; dorsal body wall with well-developed rosettes and rare spiny bifurcating rods; ventral body wall with rosettes only; dorsal appendages with bifurcating rods and rosettes; ventral tube feet with rod-like and closed rosettes; longitudinal muscles with smooth to slightly spined rods; cloacal retractor muscles with slightly spiny, distally branching rods; cloaca with spiny rods; respiratory tree with spiny rods to open spiny plates; ossicle assemblage of gonad, rete mirabile and gut not determined.
Known distribution: Ilot Maître (New Caledonia).
Taxonomic decision: valid species (confirmed after re-examination of holotype).
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