General Description

Rectangular shaped body with tapered tail and anal teeth; distinctly flattened ventral surface; multi-coloured body but always with orange markings; 10 dendritic tentacles, ventral two smaller; radial tube feet less dense in the two dorsal radii compared to the 3 ventral radii; body wall calcareous and hard due to dense scales; body wall ossicles scales, knobbed perforated plates and cups; up to ~30 mm long by ~7 mm wide.

Biology

Plesiocolochirus ignavus is a suspension feeder, it uses dendritic (branching/tree-like) tentacles to gather organic particles from the nearby water. It is one of the more common southern Australian shallow-water sea cucumbers, frequently found along coastal rocky reefs. Adults of this species are usually found attached to the under surface of rock, while juveniles prefer to make their home on algae. Plesiocolochirus ignavus was first described in the late 1800s from specimens collected in the Gulf of St Vincent in South Australia, and it has since been found in all southern states and extending as far north as northern New South Wales.

Distribution

Southern Australia: including Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and NSW

Habitat

Temperate reefs. On seaweed, in algal holdfasts, and on the under surface of rocks, to depth of at least 65 m.

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