Introduction
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- |2. - The EchinnderiH Fauna of South Afri<-<t l!v I ln;i:i;T LYMAN CLARK. (\Vilh Plates VIII X XI 1 1.) INTRODUCTION. Knowledge of the Echinoderm fauna of South Africa has not kept pace either with our zoological knowledge of the region or with our knowledge of echinoderms in general. The literature dealing with it is scanty and scattered and there are vast stretches of coast line where no collector has yet been. During the years preceding the voyage of the Challenger, a few echinoderms taken at the Cape of Good Hope came into the hands of zoologists in Europe but prior to 1875, there were scarcely thirty species recorded from the region; with the exception of one comatulid and three or four holothurians, these were about equally divided among the sea-stars, brittle-stars and sea-urchins. The visit of the Challenger marks the real begin- ning of our knowledge of the echinoderm fauna of South Africa. During her stay of seven weeks at Cape Town, her naturalists col- lected '23 species of echinoderms of which about half were new to science. At stations 141 and 142, just off the Cape, 18 additional species were taken of which half were new. The reports on the echinoderms taken by the Challenger are in every case monographic and it is possible to determine from them the species known from the Cape region during the "eighties" including the Gazelle collection. We find there were all told some 80 species listed but not all of these were reliable records, so that it is safe to say the number of echino- derms actually known from South Africa at the close of the nineteenth century was not in excess of 75 species. There were about thirty additional species recorded from Mozambique, but many of these were improperly identified and for this, and similar reasons, it is hard to say how many valid species really were known from that Portugese settlement. The early years of the present century saw a great advance in the collecting and study of the echinoderms of the South African region. The Valdivia made a short stay at Cape Town and several of the Antarctic exploring vessels have stopped there. A German expediton collected at Angra Pequena Bay in 1903-05 and also secured material at the Cape. The holothurians of this collection were reported on 15 222 Annals of the South African Museum. by Britten (1910, Schultze's Zool. Anthrop. Erg. Forsch. Sudafrika, but the other echinoderms for vol. IV, pt. I, pp. 239-243) served a very important paper by Doderlein, in the same series of reports \ He lists of the brittle- (1910, pp. '245-258, pis. IV, ). gives sea-stars, stars and sea-urchins recorded from South Africa up to 1910 and including his own new species of which there were three. More detailed reference to these lists will be found beyond (pp. 237, 310 and 300). In 1897, the Gape Department of Agriculture began an investiga- tion into the marine resources of the colony and accumulated a large amount of very valuable material, a portion of which was finally sent to the British Museum for identification. Bell's reports on the echinoderms appeared during 1904 and 1905 and were a great dis- appointment to students of the group, they are so brief and summary. Many species whose occurrence at the Cape warranted an interesting discussion are listed with scarcely any comments and even the new species are described very briefly and inadequately. A. H. Clark (1911, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. 40, p. 5) has already commented on this unfortunate state of all'airs so far as the crinoids are concerned, but the reports on the sea-stars, brittle-stars and sea-urchins are on the same plane. No report, on the holothurians was published. Early in 191(3, Dr. Peringuey sent to me the collection of Echino- derms which had accumulated at the South African Museum, sub- sequent to Bell's reports. With this collection as a basis 1 have been able to prepare the present report on the Echinoderms of South Africa. 1 have included not only all the species examined by me but all species recorded by previous writers, unless the validity of the record was so dubious as to warrant its rejection. The collections sent me have been largely made by the Cape Government vessel, the Pieter jaure, and include a considerable number of deep-water species, some hauls of the dredge or trawl having been made at depths of 900 1000 fms. These deep-water hauls are of very great interest. Excepting the holothurians the material is in excellent condition. Much of that taken along shore, particularly Mr. K. JH. Barnard's collections, has very interesting and valuable data on the labels, with reference to habitat and colour in life. The area included in this report extends from Mozambique on the east coast around to Mossamedes on the west, and outward to the thousand-fathom line. Of course, the collections hitherto made only represent isolated and wmeiy separated spots in this vast area. Something like four thousand miles of coastline is included but excepting between Cape Town and Durban, there are not half a dozen The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. 223 places on all this reach of shore where collections of echinoderms have been made. As a matter of fact we know nothing of the western coast of South Africa from Cape Town to Mossamedes, yes even to the mouth of the Congo, excepting only Saldanha Bay and Angra Pequena Bay. It was only at the earnest request of Dr. Peringuey that I consented to include Mozambique, for so far as the echino- derms are concerned that region is distinctly Indo-Pacific and has a very different fauna from that of Natal and Cape Colony. I think this will be clearly shown in the following discussion of the South African fauna. For the privilege of preparing this report and for the honour done me in entrusting these valuable collections to my care, it gives me pleasure to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Peringuey, who has spared no pains to assist my work in every possible way. Museum of Comparative Xoolng\. Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. August 1, 1922. 224 Annals of the South African Museum. THE ECHINODERM FAUNA OF SOUTH AFRICA. The collections of the South African Museum entrusted to my charge contained 1854 specimens of echinoderms, representing 157 species. Of these 32 seem to have been hitherto undescribed and one of these represents a new genus (Spatagobnssus}. It has also seemed desirable to establish a new genus (Tropholampas) for the remarkable little sea-urchin called by Studer Catopygus loveni, and another genus (Dictenophitira) is instituted for a small group of brittle-stars of which Ophiura carnea Ltk. is the type. In addition to the 157 species of the present collection, there are valid records for 59 other species, so that the present report includes 210 species, or more than double the number known from this region twenty years ago. The importance of the work done by the PIETER FAURE and the South African Museum during the past twenty years could scarcely be better emphasized than by that simple statement of fact. Of the 210 species treated herein, 118 are strictly littoral, occurring in less than 20 fms. of wr ater, while 23 are abyssal, occur- ring only beyond the 000 fms., line. The remaining 75 species may be called continental. Of the 118 littoral species, 45 are endemic and 2 are, if not actually cosmopolitan, of such wide distribution that they may be ignored in considering the origin of the echinoderm fauna. Of the 71 no fewer than or 93 are of the remaining species 66, "/ , species Indo-Paciiic region or at least of the western Indian Ocean. Only three seem to have an Atlantic origin and only two are distinctly austral. Of the 75 continental species, on the other hand, 50 are endemic and 4 are of too wr ide a distribution for consideration, while of the 21 or 19 "/ are of Indo-Pacific while remaining only 4, , affinities, 10 are austral and 7 are Atlantic Ocean forms. The abvssal fauna */ is like the continental except that of the 23 species only 5 are endemic. There are 6 of very wide distribution and of the remaining 12, only two, <>r 17%, are Indo-Pacific, while 2 are austral and 8 are Atlantic. These figures show at a glance what a highly characteristic fauna The Echinoderm Fauna of South Africa. 225 South Africa possesses, but this will be more evident if we first see what the relation is between the Mozambique fauna and that of the Cape. Of the 216 species here listed, 59 occur at Mozambique; of these, 32 or 5i" are not known from south of that district and 5 others are not known south of Delagoa Bay, and 12 others either are not known west of Durban or the records for them on the Cape Colony coast are dubious. There are then only 10 species common to the South African coast and to that of the Mozambique region. On the other hand, of the 59 species occurring at Mozambique, 50 occur at Zanzibar or further northward and 5 others are known from some other part of the Indo-Pasific region. Examination of the list of ten species common to Cape Colony and Mozambique shows that one (Tropiometra carinata] ranges from Zanzibar, around the Cape of Good Hope to Brazil and the West Indies, and another (Parechinus angulosus) is one of the endemic species of the Cape, which apparently has extended its range northward along the coast far enough just to reach the Mozambique region.