sea cucumber Bathyplotes bongraini

Bathyplotes bongraini is found throughout Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula and Bouvet Island at depths from 4.5 to 768 meters [1,3,4,5,6,7]. B. bongraini has been collected at lengths up to 26 centimeters [1,6]. B. bongraini is usually colored dark pink with a distinct dark brown cross- band, two to three centimeters wide, slightly behind the middle of the body [1].



The dorsal conical papillae of Bathyplotes bongraini are 1-5 millimeters high [1].

B. bongraini is a sediment feeder [2]. The mouth of B. bongraini is turned down (ventrally) and its anus is subdorsal [1].

Taxonomic Note: Older species name was fuscivinculum [6].

1: Zoologica Scripta 19(1):119-127, 1990; 2: Polar Biology 11(3):145-155, 1991; 3: Jim Mastro, personal communication (New Harbor 21 & 28 meters [photo]; Hutton Cliffs 4.5 meters), 1999; 4: Peter Brueggeman, personal communication (New Harbor 26 meters), 1999; 5: Polar Biology 20(4):229-247, 1998; 6: Memoirs of Museum Victoria 59(2):297–325, 2002; 7: Polar Biology 29(2):83-96, 2006

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