Sea cucumbers of the Kerguelen Plateau, with descriptions of new genus and species (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) Author O'Loughlin, P. Mark Author Skarbnik-López, Jessica Author Mackenzie, Melanie Author VandenSpiegel, Didier text Memoirs of Museum Victoria 2015 2015-12-31 73 59 93 https://museumsvictoria.com.au/collections-research/journals/memoirs-of-museum-victoria/volume-73-2015/pages-59-93/ journal article 10.24199/j.mmv.2015.73.07 1447-2554 12213223 Echinocucumis Sars, 1859 Type species ( type locality; diagnostic characters). Echinocucumis hispida ( Barrett, 1857 ) ( Norway ; sub-spherical body with vertically up-turned oral and anal ends, body 10 mm wide (width of U-shape), ventral tube feet prominent, dorsal tube feet inconspicuous, plates with single composite marginal spine) . Other assigned species ( type localities; diagnostic characters) . Echinocucumis globosa ( Ohshima, 1915 ) (Kyushu; body spherical, 9.5 mm long, dorsal and ventral tube feet, ossicle spines reduced or absent); E. hispida var. atypica Deichmann, 1930 (Havana; spines sometimes central on plates, spines more slender and tall than E. hispida ); E. kirrilyae O’Loughlin, 2009 ( E Antarctica, Enderby Land ; body fusiform, 6 mm long, tube feet ventral only, composite spines dendritic); E. multipodia Cherbonnier, 1965 ( Cameroon ; spherical body, 7 mm long, tube feet around body, scales lack spines); E. paratypica Ludwig & Heding, 1935 ( Somalia ; U-shaped body, 8.5 mm long, long tapered up-turned oral and anal ends); E. sphaericum ( Sluiter, 1901 ) (E Indonesia ; U-shaped body, 18 mm long, abundant ventral tube feet, numbers of composite spines per scale); E. tenera Cherbonnier, 1958 ( Sierra Leone ; U-shaped body, 25 mm long, dorsal and ventral tube feet). Diagnosis . Mid-body sub-spherical, tapered non-retractile oral and anal ends, usually upturned; calcareous ring cucumariid-like, lacking posterior prolongations; tentacles 10, digitiform, unequal in size; tube feet sparse or absent, slender, restricted to ambulacra; body invested with large imbricating scales that are single-layered perforated plates, each scale with predominantly one tall spine arising near plate margin. Remarks . Echinocucumis Sars, 1859 has been assigned to the Ypsilothuriidae Heding, 1942 in the order Dactylochirotida Pawson & Fell, 1965 . Smirnov (2012) abolished the Dactylochirotida and referred all the included taxa to the Dendrochirotida . Smirnov (2012) assigned the ypsilothuriid genus Echinocucumis to the subfamily Cucumariinae Ludwig, 1894 ( sensu Panning 1949 ) within the family Cucumariidae Ludwig, 1894 . He based his decision on the work of Hansen (1988) who judged that Echinocucumis is similar to Staurocucumis Ekman, 1927 and Psolicucumis Heding, 1934 . These two latter genera are assigned to the Cucumariinae . We accept the judgment of Smirnov (2012) based on morphology but anticipate that molecular phylogenetic evidence will challenge many such current assignments.