Bathyplotes sp.

Mackenzie, Melanie, Davey, Niki, Burghardt, Ingo & Haines, Margaret L., 2024, A report of sea cucumbers collected on the first dedicated deep-sea biological survey of Australia’s Indian Ocean Territories around Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea), Memoirs of Museum Victoria (Mem. Mus. Vic.) 83, pp. 207-316 : 279

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.24199/j.mmv.2024.83.03
publication LSID	urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:9065254A-A8EE-4162-ACDE-4D7F01B4A213
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/432A0A53-523C-FFFE-FF36-EDE8FBDBF8CC
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Bathyplotes sp.
status

Treatment

Bathyplotes sp. MoV. 7341

Material examined. NMV F296878 About NMV *(1) [IN 2021 V 04 048] ; NMV F308175 About NMV * (2) [IN 2022 V 08 113] ; NMV F308200 About NMV * (5) [IN 2022 V 08 116] ; NMV F 308244 About NMV * (9) and NMV F308245 About NMV * (2) [IN 2022 V 08 131] ; NMV F308294 About NMV * (6) [IN 2022 V 08 155] .

Diagnosis of IOT material. Specimens all damaged with few external features remaining.Light pink, elongate, dorsoventrally flattened to cylindrical, often covered in sponge spicules and grit. Up to 16.5 cm long, 3 cm wide, 1 cm high ( NMV F308200 About NMV , largest specimen in lot, preserved). No tube feet or papillae remaining in most specimens, though skin where present was thick and/or covered in warts and papillae. Mouth ventral to terminal. Anus appears terminal. Tentacles lost from most specimens, but where present discs have indented edges. Ossicles include spinous rods, occasional Cs, and some or all the following Bathyplotes- type tables .

Type 2) Tables with tall 4-pillared spires, distally spinous only (not along spire), with four or five crossbeams on slight angle and base made from four short, perforated arms joined to form a perforated button-disc (more typical here in papillae and occasionally with fewer spires).

Type 3) Tables with short, thick, four-pillared spires, typically with only one or two crossbeams at top, spires from tapered to almost mace-shaped, irregularly spinous along length of spire.

Type 4) Tables with four arms and a short solid singlepillar spire with spinous crown (more common in papillae or warts).

Type 5) Tables with tall four-pillared spires, with five or six crossbeams, spines along length of spire, with four long, separate, distally perforated arms. Differs from type 1) by additional crossbeams, spines along length of spire and spire square to tapered but not “thorny” at top.

Type 6) Tables with short four-pillared spires, spines mostly distal, one or two crossbeams on slight angle and base made from four short arms joined to form a perforated button disc. This table differs from Type 2) in being much shorter with fewer crossbeams (found in ventral body wall here).

Remarks. Some B. sulcatus and B. natans ossicle types present here again with some additional variations or omissions. Type 5) tables are distinguished from B. phlegmaticus ossicles by lack of spines on table arms. The type 4) tables and skin morphology (papillae and warts) of NMV F296878 was very similar to B. moseleyi and Synallactidae sp. MoV. 7339. Most specimens here are from stations deeper than for Bathyplotes sp. MoV. 7340. Again the variation in ossicles and morphology within this genetically distinct group leads us to identify specimens here to OTU level Bathyplotes sp. MoV. 7341 until this family can be revised with a combination of genetic and morphological analysis.

Distribution. These specimen lots only: Indian Ocean, Australian IOT, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands Territories, Balthazar Seamount Stn., Scrooge Seamount Stn., Lucia Seamount Stn., and Cocos (Keeling) Stn., 1260–1991 m.

References (for genus). Sars (1868), SolÍs-MarÍn (2003), Sluiter (1901a), Théel (1886a).