PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 103(4), 1990, pp. 913-921 A NEW COMBINATION AND SYNONYMY FOR TWO SUBSPECIES OF CUCUMARIA FISHERI WELLS (ECHINODERMATA: HOLOTHUROIDEA) Philip Lambert Abstract. — Cucumaria fisheri fished Wells is a junior subjective synonym of Cucumaria piperata (Stimpson). Cucumaria fisheri astigmata Wells is referred to the genus Pseudocnus Panning. The new combination Pseudocnus astigmatus (Wells) is redescribed here. The taxonomy of Cucumariidae from the west coast of North America needs revision. This paper addresses one taxonomic prob-lem as part of a larger study into the sys-tematics of a group of brooding holothu-roids, to be reported on later. Wells (1924) described Cucumaria fisheri (later in the same paper he referred to it as C / forma fisheri) as yellow with brown spots, and with podia in double rows. C / astigmata was described as orange yellow, without spots, and having scattered podia. The obvious differences in podia arrangement led me to question whether the two forms were con-specific. In this paper I shall assume "for-ma" to be equivalent to subspecies (Int. Trust Zool. Nomen., 1985, Section 45(g)). My examination of the holotypes (Figs. 1 , 2) confirmed that the external characters are as Wells originally described. He stated that the ossicles of C./ astigmata were "... identical with those of Cucumaria fisheri, forma fisheri" (Wells, 1924:1 18). I sampled skin ossicles from the holotypes and found them to be substantially different. Skin os-sicles from the holotype of C. / astigmata (USNM E01196) are thick, knobbed, per-forated buttons or plates (Fig. 3). A few are pine-cone shaped with a spiny handle-like extension at one end. They appear to match the ossicles illustrated by Wells ( 1 924, fig. 1). Ossicles from the holotype of Cf fisheri Wells (USNM E01198) are, on the other hand, relatively thin, perforated plates with serrated edges. Most are oval with a handle-like extension and pointed bumps on both surfaces (Fig. 4). The ossicles from these two forms are undoubtedly from distinct species rather than from two conspecifics as sug-gested by Wells. The holotype of C. fisheri fisheri should be referred to Cucumaria piperata (Stimp-son, 1864). Cucumaria piperata was de-scribed from specimens collected in Puget Sound. Unfortunately, the type specimen has been lost. There is little doubt, however, that Stimpson was describing the white, speckled sea cucumber commonly found in the sheltered waters of Washington and British Columbia (Fig. 5). Deichmann (1937: 169) confused the identification of this spe-cies by referring a specimen from off San Jose Point, west of Lower California, to C. piperata (Stimpson): however, that speci-men had ". . . knobbed perforated plates with dentate handle and small four-holed swollen or knobbed buttons." C. piperata does not have the latter 'Mbur-holcd . . . but-tons." Deichmann probably had cither C. californica Semper or C. f. astigmata. Pan-ning (1962) illustrated the ossicles ofC pi-perata for the first time, and also stated that the four-holed plates, mentioned by Deich-mann, were absent. As a result of this confusion in the liter-ature, the identification of white, spotted sea cucumbers on the west coast of North America has been unclear. I have collected
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