Apostichopus Californicus Was Distinguished Through Dissection and Removal First Described As Holothuria Californica by of the Gametes (Strathmann 1987)
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Phylum: Echinodermata Apostichopus californicus Class: Holothuroidea Order: Aspidochirotida California Sea Cucumber, Giant Red Cucumber Family: Stichopodidae Maddie Hicks Taxonomy: Apostichopus californicus was distinguished through dissection and removal first described as Holothuria californica by of the gametes (Strathmann 1987). William Stimpson in 1857. Synonymized names include Stichopus californicus and Possible Misidentifications Parastichopus californicus (WoRMs, 2021). Apostichopus californicus used to be sometimes confused with Stichopus fuscus Description (IUCN 2010). It has also been confused with Size: Apostichopus californicus can measure Parastichopus leukothele, distinguished by up to 50 cm long (Lambert 1997). This sea its bright orange skin and rusty-brown cucumber is considered the largest of the sea patches. It usually lives at greater depths, cucumbers on California shores (Morris et al. and the papillae are small and white 1980). (Lambert 1997). Synallactes challengeri is Color: The dorsal and lateral surfaces of A. also similar in appearance but smaller and californicus are typically dark red, brown, or usually gray with a purple or pinkish color yellow (Morris et al. 1980). They can also and long, slender papillae (Lambert 1997). sometimes be pinto or albino (Strathmann 1987). Ecological Information Body: The body is cylindrical. The skin is Range: Apostichopus californicus is usually leathery and has stiff, conical papillae on the found from British Columbia, Canada, to Isla dorsal side (Fig. 1). The mouth is at the Cerdos in Baja California and Northern anterior end, and the anus opens into a Mexico (Morris et al. 1980). posterior cloaca (Lambert 1997). Local Distribution: Rocky subtidal habitat. Mouthparts: A circle of 20 peltate feeding OIMB classes frequently collect this species tentacles surrounds the sub-terminal mouth around the Cape Arago rocky reef. Individuals (Lambert 1997). are also occasionally found on the floating Tube Feet: Tube feet are densely arranged docks in the Charleston Marina. on the ventral side of the body (Morris et al. Habitat: Apostichopus californicus usually 1980). There are numerous rows of them, and stays on rocky shores in areas protected from they are robust and usually lighter in color strong wave action and on pilings in open than the dorsal side (Lambert 1997). bays (Morris et al. 1980). They frequent rocks Skin Ossicles: Ossicles on this cucumber in the low intertidal and subtidal waters as are disks with a diameter of 72-92 m and a well as sand-shell, kelp, and sand substrata spire with 11-19 spines. They are large oval (Strathmann 1987). plates with two rows of holes running Temperature: Unknown. lengthwise (Lambert 1997). Depth: Apostichopus californicus occurs from Respiratory Trees: Respiratory trees are 0-249 meters (Lambert 1997). sometimes called water-lungs and are Associates: This cucumber can frequently be structures that bring oxygenated seawater found with the commensal scale worm into the body. They allow for gas exchange Arctonoe pulchra (Morris et al. 1980). This across the thin surface, and the rhythmic scale worm is often the same color as its host inflation and deflation of the respiratory trees and is attracted to the host's smell. It is is accomplished through the posterior cloaca uncommon in California but may be found on (Harrison 1994). A. californicus from the Gulf of Alaska to Baja Sexual Dimorphism: No sexual dimorphism California, Mexico (Cowles 2006). Ciliated has been noted. Sexes can be best protozoans may be found living in the A publication of the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Oregon. https://oimb.uoregon.edu/oregon-shelf-invertebrates Email corrections to: [email protected] respiratory trees of A. californicus (Morris et Fankboner 1989). Some doliolaria larvae al. 1980). The flatworm Anoplodium hymanae swim up in the water column, but most remain has been seen within the body cavity, and on the bottom of a dish when observed in the another flatworm, Wahlia pulchella, is found in lab (Strathmann 1987). the upper intestines. The parasitic gastropod, Juvenile: Newly settled and growing Enteroxenos parastichopoli, can also be seen pentactulae are quite active and can move, attached to the intestines as elongated coils. feed, and excrete waste. About 90 days after The parasitic snail, Vitriolina columbiana, settlement, cloacal pumping is observed, adheres to the external surface and suggesting that respiratory trees are present penetrates the skin, where it sucks out the and functional. These juveniles can also internal fluids (Lambert 1997). sometimes be seen propped on their single Abundance: It is difficult to determine the tube foot and waving around their tentacles exact abundance of this species. They are (Cameron and Fankboner 1989). Juveniles of listed as species of least concern by the A. californicus that are less than one year old IUCN, and density estimates from almost all and less than 1 cm in length are seldom surveys are significantly higher than the encountered in situ and are difficult to study conservative estimate of 5.08 sea cucumbers outside of a laboratory setting (Cameron and per meter of shoreline (IUCN 2010). Fankboner 1989). Settling larvae likely attach to undersides of rocks in calm coves, bays, Life-History Information and fjords as this is where the juveniles that Reproduction: Adult A. californicus reach are found are typically discovered. They can sexual maturity after four years and will also sometimes be found in dense mats of typically migrate to shallow waters to spawn red algae and on tubes of polychaete worms from late April to August (Lambert 1997). The (Strathmann 1987). ripe ovary is plump, and a translucent, glassy Longevity: Life in the plankton as a larva is orange color; testes are white (Strathmann considered hazardous, and juveniles face 1987). During spawning, A. californicus will lift many challenges for survival and typically the anterior one-third to one-half of the body experience larval mortality (Cameron and in a cobra-like manner and release strings of Fankboner 1989). Those that survive to white sperm or light orange eggs from the adulthood usually live up to 12 years, and gonophore just behind the dorsal tentacles most cucumbers are found after their first 3 (Lambert 1997). The eggs are small and years of life (IUCN 2010). negatively buoyant. Fertilization occurs in Growth Rate: Growth of a recently settled open water, and large females typically have juvenile appears to result from the fecundities up to 8.92 x 106 (Strathmann lengthening of the body in the anterior 1987). direction. A single tube foot is typically Larva: Apostichopus californicus is the only present on the ventral surface at settlement in local species with pelagic planktotrophic these cucumbers. As they continue to grow, development in which a feeding larva this primary tube foot remains in the terminal develops in the plankton (Strathmann 1987). position near the anus. Soon after, additional This development includes a feeding tube feet appear anteriorly. After the end of auricularia larva that swims from 35-52 days the first year post settlement, a small cluster (Strathmann 1987). The larva has a light- of tube feet appear terminally around the yellow tint on the ciliary band and has primary tube foot (Cameron and Fankboner irregular star-shaped ossicles in the left 1989). Mature animals are less than 4.5 years posterolateral lobe. At 20-23C, the pelagic old (Cameron and Fankboner 1989). period to settlement can be as brief as only Food: Apostichopus californicus typically eats 14 days long (Strathmann 1987). organic detritus and small organisms that it Metamorphosis of the auricularia may begin ingests with bottom sediments (Morris et al. at about 65 days after fertilization or delayed 1980). It uses its mop-shaped tentacles to upwards of another 60 days (Cameron and grasp food and then retracts them into the Fankboner 1989). This auricularia then forms mouth (Lambert 1997). into a doliolaria and then a pentactula before Predators: Tests with fishes indicate that this becoming an adult cucumber (Cameron and sea cucumber has a body that does not store Hicks, M. 2021. Apostichopus californicus. In: Oregon Shelf Invertebrates. C.Q. Plowman and C.M. Young (eds.). Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, Charleston, OR. toxic substances as a defense method like Bibliography some tropical cucumbers (Lambert 1997). It is 1. CAMERON, J. L., and P. V. sometimes eaten by several sea star species, FANKBONER. 1989. Reproductive including Pycnopodia helianthoides and biology of the commercial sea cucumber Solaster endeca. When it comes in contact Parastichopus californicus (Stimpson) with P. helianthoides, the cucumber will rear (Echinodermata:Holothuroidea). II. back and flex violently to escape the sea star Observations on the ecology of (Lambert 1997). It is also eaten by some sea development, recruitment, and the otters and occasionally people. A closely- juvenile life stage. Journal of Experimental related sea cucumber, Stichopus japonicas, is Marine Biology and Ecology 127:43–67. frequently eaten in Japan by humans (Morris 2. COWLES, D. 2006. Arctonoe pulchra. et al. 1980). https://inverts.wallawalla.edu/Annelida/Pol Behavior: When disturbed, A. californicus will ynoidae/Arctonoe_pulchra.html. 11 sometimes contract and squirt a powerful flow August 2019 of water from their posterior end (Morris et al. 3. HARRISON, F. W. (ed). 1994. 1980). Additionally, these cucumbers can Echinodermata. Wiley-Liss, New York, eviscerate and regenerate their internal NY. organs. A population of these animals in 4. IUCN. 2010, May 18. Parastichopus Puget Sound, WA has been observed to californicus: Mercier, A., Hamel, J.-F., eviscerate in October and November and Toral-Granda, T.-G., Alvarado, J.J., Paola regenerate new organs shortly after. Ortiz, E. & Benavides, M.: The IUCN Red However, the viscera may be expelled at List of Threatened Species 2013: other months if the animal is being kept in International Union for Conservation of warm or stale water, usually in a laboratory Nature. setting (Morris et al. 1980).