Zygothuria lactea
Creators: name: Mackenzie, Melanie
name: Davey, Niki
name: Burghardt, Ingo
name: Haines, Margaret L.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Echinodermata
Holothuroidea
Holothuriida
Mesothuriidae
Zygothuria
Zygothuria lactea

description: Zygothuria lactea (Théel, 1886)
Figure 26a–f, Appendix 1, Table S1
Holothuria lactea Théel, 1886a: 183–184, pl. 9, fig. 15.— Théel, 1886a: 6–7.
Zygothuria lactea.— Perrier, 1898: 1665.— Perrier, 1899: 246.— Perrier, 1902: 322, 327.— Deichmann, 1930: 108–111, pl. 8, figs 8, 9.— Deichmann, 1940: 190–191.— Deichmann, 1954: 386; SolÍs-MarÍn 2003: 68–73, figs 3.4, 3.5.— Gebruk et al., 2012: 310–312, 320–321, figs 13, 14.— Gebruk et al., 2014: 170–171.— Wirawati and Setyastuti 2021: 455, fig. 2c, d.
Mesothuria lactea.— Sluiter, 1901a: 25.— Hérouard, 1902: 21–23, pl. 1, figs 17–19; 1923: 13–15, pl. 4, figs 1–3.— Mortensen, 1927: 382– 383, fig. 227.
Mesothuria (Zygothuria) lactea.— Heding, 1940: 340–341, fig. 7.
Mesothuria (Zygothuria) lactea lactea.— Heding, 1942: 9–10, fig. 9.
Material examined. NMV F308332 (1) [IN 2022 V 08 195].
Diagnosis of IOT material. Shipboard notes indicate this specimen was large, flat, very gelatinous, and stuck to the beam trawl net. Little structure and no real features remaining in preserved specimen, soft, wrinkled white tissue in broken pieces with some gut and stomach. Skin dense with tri-radiate Zygothuria ossicles. Base discs predominantly with six perforations (many also with eight). Three-pillared spires with three long, smooth, slender arms curving up from top, and one transverse beam between base and top. Rare similar tables with four pillars. Rare tables with a single off-centre spire.
Remarks. Extensive damage to the specimen meant that identification was reliant on ossicles only. These keyed closest to Z. lactea using Gebruk et al. (2012) and were a good match to the ossicle illustrations and description in the same paper.
Distribution. Cosmopolitan species, though records from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean may be unreliable (Gebruk et al., 2012).
Full bathymetric range. 694–5278 m (IOT records 1426–1450 m).
Type locality. Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, off the Azores and New Zealand, 1280–1830 m.
This species not previously recorded for Australia in AFD but recorded at depths of 817–4250 m off the eastern coast of Australia (Queensland to Victoria) and in the Great Australian Bight off South Australia in ALA (January 2024, under previous taxonomy). This IOT material represents a geographic range extension for the species in Australia.
References. AFD (2024), ALA (2024), Gebruk et al. (2012), Gebruk et al. (2014), Hansson et al. (2001), Östergren (1896), Théel (1886a), SolÍs-MarÍn (2003).
description: Published as part of 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), pp. 207-316 in Memoirs of Museum Victoria (Mem. Mus. Vic.) (Mem. Mus. Vic.) 83 on pages 248-249, DOI: 10.24199/j.mmv.2024.83.03