New apodid species from southern Australia (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea: Apodida)
Author
O’Loughlin, P. Mark
text
Memoirs of Museum Victoria
2007
2007-12-31
64
53
70
https://museumsvictoria.com.au/collections-research/journals/memoirs-of-museum-victoria/volume-64-2007/pages-23-34/
journal article
10.24199/j.mmv.2007.64.4
1447-2554
12211133
Prototrochus burni
O’Loughlin
sp. nov.
Figure 10e
;
Table 1
Material
.
Holotype
:
Eastern
Australia
, E
Victoria
,
96 km
S of Point Hicks
,
38°40’S
,
149°17’E
,
2900 m
, lower continental slope, compacted clay, stn SLOPE 66,
RV
Franklin
, G.C.B
. Poore et al.,
25 Oct 1988
,
NMV
F94697
(with 2 microscope slides of wheel ossicles).
Description
. Anterior body part; length 2.0 mm; calcareous ring diameter 1.0 mm; 10 peltato-digitate tentacles; calcareous ring symmetrical, 10 plates, dorsal and ventral plates subequal, radial and interradial plates with single long anterior spire, radially digitiform and distally narrowly rounded, interradially narrower and distally pointed, all plates with posterior indentations, lacking posterior projections.
Body wall ossicles massed wheels only: average (21) wheel diameter 272
μ
m (range 240–336
μ
m); spokes thick, average 10 per wheel (range 8–12); wheel rim slightly undulating, not angular rounded, not scalloped or straight across each tooth; wheel hubs simple, not perforated; hub diameter 56
μ
m for wheel diameter 256
μ
m (22%), hub diameter 80
μ
m for wheel diameter 320
μ
m (25%); wheel teeth subequal in size, distributed regularly around inner rim, not aligned with spokes, bluntly rounded, all pointing towards hub; small 8 spoke wheel with 32 teeth (25%), large 11 spoke wheel with 35 teeth (31%); tooth length 3
μ
m for wheel diameter 30
μ
m (10%), tooth length 6
μ
m for wheel diameter 42
μ
m (14%). Tentacles lack ossicles.
Colour.
Off-white, translucent; tentacles with large brown spot distally, small pair proximally.
Distribution.
Eastern
Australia
, E
Victoria
, S of Point Hicks, lower continental slope;
2900 m
.
Etymology
. Named for Robert Burn (Marine Research Group of
Victoria
; Honorary Associate of Museum
Victoria
), in appreciation of his decades of generous and dedicated contribution to marine research and Museum
Victoria
, and his invaluable service to the Marine Research Group.
Remarks.
Prototrochus burni
O’Loughlin
sp. nov.
is based on a single small part-specimen. Tentacles, calcareous ring, and wheel ossicles are all present, and adequate for a specific diagnosis. The symmetrical calcareous ring, with single long anterior projection on each plate and 10 tentacles, wheels with evenly distributed teeth pointing towards the hub, and absence of rod ossicles, identify the new species as a
Prototrochus
Beljaev and Mironov, 1982
. The large diameter of the wheels and high number of teeth per wheel distinguish
P. burni
sp. nov.
from
P. australis
(Beljaev and Mironov)
,
P. staplesi
sp. nov.
(below) and
P. taniae
sp. nov.
(below). In the data given by
Beljaev and Mironov (1981)
the “bigger” wheel diameters of the
holotype
of
P. australis
are significantly larger than for any of their other
P. australis
specimens. All are significantly smaller than the
P. burni
wheels.
P. burni
occurs at a significantly greater depth (
2900 m
) than the
holotype
of
P. australis
and the other new species (below) (
Table 1
).