Neostichopus

Deichmann, 1948

1 species

Medium sized forms 15 cm preserved. Slender, synallactid-like body with stout ventral feet and retractile dorsal papillae; flanks not thickened; tentacles 10 with comparatively small discs. Calcareous ring stout; tentacle ampullae short; single stone canal, dorsally attached. 1-2 Polian vesicles. Gonads in two tufts with a number of stems with clusters of branching tubules. New stems appear to be added anteriorly, while the old stems and their tubules are reduced at the posterior. Spicules, an external layer of regular tables with 4 large holes and four smaller marginal ones. This layer is rapidly reduced and older specimens have scattered tables or reduced ones with incomplete disc and often no spire. The inner layer consists of delicate buttons with two oblong lateral holes and two small terminal ones; with age these buttons become modified into rods, spectacles, ellipses etc. Feet with end plate but no special supporting rods or plates. In her remarks Deichmann says this resembles Parastichopus in several ways. (Deichmann, 1948)

Tables gradually becoming reduced, and delicate buttons with two lateral and two terminal holes, often reduced to irregular bodies. South African Waters. (Deichmann, 1958, from key)

Length up to 120 mm, gelatinous when alive, color usually a shade of red; papillae few; body wall spicules of juveniles (<40 mm long) exclusively tables, severely reduced and absent in larger individuals; minute perforated plates replace tables but become variously modified with age to form asymmetrical rods, ellipses, etc., large dumb-bell or skittle-shaped deposits in the papillae. (Thandar, 1987)