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Synapta maculata, the snake sea cucumber, is a species of sea cucumber in the family Synaptidae. It is found in shallow waters in the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean. Sometimes growing as long as , it is one of the longest sea cucumbers in the world.
The outer surface of the tentacles bears numerous vesicular cells, and there are a few scattered vesicles on the body surface also. The function of these cells is unclear, but it is suggested that they may contain a noxious substance and serve a defensive function. The tentacles are particularly vulnerable to predation by fish, but if they taste nasty, that enables the sea cucumber to spend a greater proportion of its time feeding, rather than having to keep retracting its tentacles whenever a fish approaches. There are also some cup-shaped structures on the inside of the tentacles near the stem. It is hypothesized that these are rudimentary sensory organs, able to taste the edibility of the food material that the animal is transporting to its mouth.
A defensive response made by many sea cucumbers is evisceration, but in the case of S. maculata, autotomy is preferred, with large individuals dispensing with sections near the rear end while smaller individuals break into many pieces. Two previously unknown triterpene holostane have been isolated from S. maculata; one has moderate activity against HeLa tumour cells while the other is inactive.
"At first, I could not believe that these weird objects were alive. I thought they must be strange, dead strands of some deep-sea seaweed now washed into the shallows by the tide, to roll and undulate helplessly on the sand to the small movements of the sea. Closer inspection showed me that they were indeed alive, unlikely though it seemed. Sinucta muculata, as this strange creature is called, is really a sort of elongated tube, which sucks in water at one end and with it microscopic organisms, and expels the water at the other."
In literature
Naturalist Gerald Durrell's 1977 observations of this creature were made when he was snorkeling in shallow water in Mauritius:
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