Psychropotes is a genus of sea cucumbers in the family Psychropotidae. The members of this genus possess the ability to swim, although this is only facultative.
Description
As adults, species of Psychropotes are roughly cylindrical in shape and red to violet in colour. They have a sail-like appendage which can be used for swimming during the larval stage, but is no longer needed when it is fully grown. Larvae of Psychropotes species are benthopelagic and swim around using the aforementioned appendage, however researchers are still trying to understand its use when the holothurian is fully grown. Larvae are transparent and can grow to around 2 cm long.
Species
The following species are recognised in the genus Psychropotes:
- Psychropotes belyaevi <small>Hansen, 1975</small>
- Psychropotes depressa <small>(Théel, 1882)</small>
- Psychropotes dubiosa <small>Ludwig, 1893</small>
- Psychropotes dyscrita <small>(Clark, 1920)</small>
- Psychropotes fuscopurpurea <small>Théel, 1882</small>
- Psychropotes hyalinus <small>Pawson, 1985</small>
- Psychropotes longicauda <small>Théel, 1882</small>
- Psychropotes loveni <small>Théel, 1882</small>
- Psychropotes minuta <small>(Koehler & Vaney, 1905)</small>
- Psychropotes mirabilis <small>Hansen, 1975</small>
- Psychropotes monstrosa <small>Théel, 1882</small>
- Psychropotes moskalevi <small>Gebruk & Kremenetskaia in Gebruk et al., 2020</small>
- Psychropotes pawsoni <small>Gebruk & Kremenetskaia in Gebruk et al., 2020</small>
- Psychropotes raripes <small>Ludwig, 1893</small>
- Psychropotes scotiae <small>(Vaney, 1908)</small>
- Psychropotes semperiana <small>Théel, 1882</small>
- Psychropotes verrucicaudatus <small>Xiao, Gong, Kou & Li, 2019</small>
- Psychropotes verrucosa <small>(Ludwig, 1894)</small>
- Psychropotes xenochromata <small>Rogacheva & Billett, 2009</small>
References