Neopentadactyla mixta

Burrowing sea cucumber

   Neopentadactyla mixta is a sea cucumber of up to 20 cm in length. The cylindrical body is buried in the sand, only its 15 to 30 tentacles emerge. The tentacles are bushy and 10 cm long. They are used to catch and bring plankton into the mouth, in the middle of the tentacles circle. Tentacles are slipt into the mouth and licked to collect plankton stuck on them as it is the case with the close sea cucumber species Aslia lefevrei. The colour is generally yellowish to orange but it may be purple.
It is found from surface to 200 m deep in the Atlantic from Norway to Brittany, in the North Sea and the English Channel.

Classification

 (source : European Register of Marine Species)

• Echinodermata [Phylum]
• Echinozoa [Subphylum]
• Holothuroidea [Class]
• Dendrochirotacea [Subclass]
• Dendrochirotida [Order]
• Phyllophoridae [Family]
• Neopentadactyla mixta (Ostergren, 1898) Deichmann, 1944

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Authors

Top photograph :
© Wilfried Bay-Nouailhat. Published with author's kind permission : 
Neopentadactyla mixta, Baie de Concarneau, South-Brittany, West of France. Depth 11 meters.
Text :  Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2005-2009.
Translation :  Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2007-2009.

How to cite this page in publications

Bay-Nouailhat A., September 2005, Description of Neopentadactyla mixta, Available on line at http://www.european-marine-life.org/30/neopentadactyla-mixta.php, consulted on 04 July 2009.
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