Thelenota ananas

Thelenota ananas
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Echinodermata
Class:Holothuroidea
Order:Synallactida
Family:Stichopodidae
Genus:Thelenota
Brandt, 1835
Species: T. ananas
Binomial name
Thelenota ananas
Jaeger, 1833

Thelenota ananas, also known as pineapple sea cucumber, oloturia ananas, tripang, prickly skin cucumber, pointed teat sea cucumber, armoured sea cucumber, giant sea cucumber, sand fish or prickly redfish, is a species of sea cucumber[1][2] found in tropical Indo-Pacific waters from the Red Sea and East Africa to Hawaii and Polynesia.[3][4] Its reddish-brown body with large and mostly branched papillae can reach up to 70 centimetres (28 in) in length.[3] This species can be found on clean sandy bottoms of the ocean near large coral heads. It has a distinctive appearance with large pointed teats in groups of two or three all over the surface of its body. It has numerous large tubed feet on its flat underside as well.

This type of sea cucumber is edible and is considered a delicacy in the Far East countries.[5] Due to intense commercial exploitation, the population of T. ananas has declined by 80-90% in at least 50% of its range; it is listed as endangered by IUCN.[4]

The worm pearlfish (Encheliophis vermicularis) is a parasite of this species and each parasitised individual will host a male and female pair of the fish which live inside its body.[6]

References

  1. ↑ WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Thelenota ananas (Jaeger, 1833)
  2. ↑ Prickly Redfish (Thelenota ananas) - Information on Prickly Redfish - Encyclopedia of Life
  3. 1 2 Lieske, Ewald; Myers, Robert (2004). Coral reef guide. Red Sea. p. 346. ISBN 9780007741731.
  4. 1 2 "Thelenota ananas". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  5. ↑ - Pineapple Sea Cucumber (Thelenota ananas)
  6. ↑ Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2018). "Encheliophis vermicularis" in FishBase. February 2018 version.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.