Sublittoral and bathyal sea cucumbers (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) from the Northern Mozambique Channel with description of six new species Author Samyn, Yves Author Vandenspiegel, Didier text Zootaxa 2016 4196 4 451 497 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.4196.4.1 921bb78e-4a75-4fa5-82b6-5c7a75c7ad1e 1175-5326 168273 80863DAE-C9E4-466D-9E27-AD938E826D4A Pseudostichopus mollis Théel, 1886 ( Fig. 20 A – B) Pseudostichopus mollis Théel, 1886 : 169 –170, pl. 10 figs 5, 6; O’Loughlin & Ahearn, 2005 : 171 , figs 1b, c, 9a, e, 10b, c, 11e, f (synonymy and records before 2005). Material examined . Non-type material : IE-2007-778 (3) (6 specimens, sampled in front of Majumga). FIGURE 20. Pseudostichopus mollis Théel, 1886 . A: different view of specimens, B: ossicles from tentacles Scale bar: A = 1cm, B = 20µm. Remarks . The species in the genus Pseudostichopus are notoriously difficult to identify because they are characterized by lacking ossicles in the body wall. From the region, three species have been documented: P. echinatus Thandar, 1992 characterized by having very irregular knobbed rod ossicles in the tentacles; Pseudostichopus hyalegerus ( Sluiter, 1901 ) (see above) and P. langeae Thandar, 2006 , characterized by having branched rods in the gonad. P. mollis had already been reported from the Southern Indian Ocean, off Marion Island (O’loughlin & Ahearn 2005 ). The six specimens of P. mollis observed were eviscerated but pieces of gonads were found in two specimens; no ossicles was observed in the gonads but spiny rods (60 – 240µm long), occasionally branched and with some perforations, were found in the tentacles ( Fig.20 B)