Type data: EcHh 3091; Station EH-196, St 250; South Reef Noumea (New Caledonia); 25 m depth; coll. Menou; 04.VII.1980; well preserved; well relaxed; ventro-longitudinal section; calcareous ring missing.
Anatomical description: 170 mm long; 40-60 mm wide; bivium arched; trivium flattened; position of mouth could not be determined; anus terminal; dorsal body wall beige-brown; ventral body wall beige-brown; tentacles white with tinge of green; dorsal appendages white; ventral tube feet white; dorsal appendages spread regularily over bivium; tube feet in trivium spread over complete area; bivium and trivium not separated by lateral fringe of appendages; body wall ±1 mm thick, rough to the touch; 16 tentacles counted; structure of the calcareous ring could not be determined; single short Polian vesicle; single short stone canal; gonad ramified; longitudinal muscles bifid, wide, attached at edges; respiratory trees longer than half of body length; cloaca 50 mm long; Cuvierian tubules present.
Ossicle description: tentacles with rods, bifurcating distally or with perforation, margins undulating; dorsal and ventral body wall with tables with smooth disc with one central hole and one ring of peripheral holes, 4 pillars ending in a narrow crown and smooth buttons with undulating rim and with generally perforated by three pairs of holes; dorsal appendages with irregular perforated plates and tables with very hig spire united by 8 or more cross-beams and ending in a small crow; ventral tube feet with buttons nd perforated plates and tables with high spire; longitudinal and cloacal retractor muscles, gonad, cloaca, respiratory tree and gut devoid of ossicles.
Known distribution: Noumea, Uimé Reef (New Caledonia).
Taxonomic decision: nomen inquirendum (to be compared with the holotype of H. samoana Ludwig, 1875).
Remarks: the species is characterised by its high tack lack tables of the dorsal and ventral appendages. These deposits remind of Theelothuria rather than Thymioscia. Cherbonnier & Féral (1984) noted that the species has highest affinity with H. samoana Ludwig, 1875. The latter Rowe (in Rowe & Gates, 1995) removed from Theelothuria to Platyperona. Rowe (in Rowe & Gates, 1995) considers H. altaturicula to be a junior subjective synonym of H. samoana Ludwig, 1875.
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