The cucumariid holothurians of southern Africa with the erection of a new genus

Abstract

The southern African dendrochirotid holothurians of the family Cucumariidae (sensu Pawson & Fell, 1965) are revised and a new genus Pseudoaslia is erected to accommodate Cucumaria tetracentriophora Heding, 1938, which possesses a combination of slender forked rods and four-holed knobbed buttons as body wall deposits. In addition, Pentacta squamosa Cherbonnier, 1970 is declared a synonym of Ocnus capensis (Théel, 1886); Cucumaria rigidapeda   Cherbonnier, 1952 and C. corbula Cherbonnier, 1953 are referred respectively to the genera Trachythyone and Ocnus;and Pseudocotochirus violaceus Théel, 1886 and a specimen tentatively referred to as Trachythyone parva (Ludwig, 1875) are recorded for the first time from southern Africa. These changes result in the total number of cucumariid holothurians now known from southern Africa to 10 genera and 18 species. All species are keyed, briefly described and/or discussed, and their local distributions mapped.