About Euapta godeffroyi (Semper, 1868)
Euapta godeffroyi is a long, slender sea cucumber that grows to approximately 40 cm (16 in) in length. A ring of fifteen feathery tentacles surrounds its mouth. Its body is creamy white, marked with grey blotches and a pair of longitudinal stripes that are either brown or greenish. Its spicules, which are microscopic calcareous structures that project through the skin, consist of a mixture of anchors and perforated plates with large holes. This species is native to the tropical Indo-Pacific region. Its range extends from the Red Sea and Madagascar to Hawaii and Easter Island, and includes Indonesia, the Philippines, northern Australia and New Caledonia. It can be found at depths down to around 77 m (253 ft), living in tidal pools, among stones, on sand, and among rubble on the upper sections and slopes of reefs. Euapta godeffroyi is a nocturnal deposit feeder. It stays hidden among rubble and corals during the day. At night it emerges, crawling along using its anchor spicules for adhesion, and extends its tentacles into sediment where food particles stick to the tentacles. The particles are then passed to the mouth and scraped off. This sea cucumber selects more nutritious particles from the sediment it encounters and consumes several times its own body weight in food each day.
