Presence of Stereoderma kirschbergi (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea) on Sinop Peninsula coast, Turkey: first record from Turkish Black Sea

Abstract

Holothurian species play important roles in marine ecosytems, such as assisting in the composition of organic matter in sediment and releasing nutrients to the ecological food chain. Moreover, they are commercially important to the economy and medicine. There are approximately 25 families, 200 genera and 1400 species worldwide (Rowe & Gates, 1995). The genus Stereoderma Ayres, 1851 is the smallest group among the class Holothuroidea (Echinodermata), comprising two species occurring in European waters: Stereoderma incerta Cherbonnier, 1969 and Stereoderma kirschbergi (Heller, 1868). Between 2005 and 2006, we surveyed and collected the marine organisms on the Sinop Peninsula coast of the Black Sea by SCUBA diving. Holothuroid specimens had been collected from inside of the sea snail Rapana venosa (Valenciennes, 1846) at a depth of 30 m (Figure 1). The samples were examined under the microscope and photographed (Figure 2). The specimens were deposited in the reference collection of Sinop Fisheries Faculty, Ondokuz Mayis University, Turkey. According to Zenkevitch (1963), the holothuroid fauna of the Black Sea comprises only seven species. Several records of S. kirschbergi are available from the Sea of Marmara and various sectors of the Black Sea (except the Anatolian coast) (Cherhbonnier, 1960; Zenkevitch, 1963; Tortonese, 1965; Caspers, 1968). In 1868 Camil Heller described five new Holothuroidea for the eastern Adriatic Sea. Later, some of Heller’s specimens were rediscovered and C. kirschbergi are redescribed and their current taxonomic status revised as S. kirschbergi by Panning (1949). Tortonese (1965) found many specimens of S. (=Cucumaria) kirschbergi in the Bosphorus. Mentioned material was collected on mud (77 m) and sandy-mud (55 m) bottoms and it was found inside mollusc shells with an abundance of 18 specimens m-2. Caspers (1968) also reported the species associated with brittle stars Amphipholis squamata (Delle Chiaje, 1829) and Amphiura chiajei Forbes, 1843 in the same region. Panning (1949) stated that the typical habitat of the species is mainly amongst algae or mussel beds, at depths of 50–80 m. It is generally distributed in the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Black Sea. This species is similar to the common Panningia hyndmani W. Thompson, 1840, Pawsonia saxicola (Brady & Robertson, 1871) and Figure 1. Investigation area with the sampling point.