---
title: False Warty Sea Cucumber (Stichopus pseudohorrens)
scientific_name: Stichopus pseudohorrens
common_name: False Warty Sea Cucumber
taxon: Sea cucumber
conservation_status: DD - Data Deficient
published: 2026-08-05T23:57:33.648Z
updated: 2026-08-20T17:09:46.005Z
tags: False Warty Sea Cucumber, Stichopus pseudohorrens, Sea cucumber, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-cucumber/false-warty-sea-cucumber
---

# False Warty Sea Cucumber (*Stichopus pseudohorrens*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Sea cucumber (*Holothuroidea*)
- **Size:** up to 50 cm
- **Depth:** 2-30 m
- **Diet:** Detritivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Sand and rubble at the reef base
- **Conservation status:** DD - Data Deficient

## How to recognise it

- brownish body with sharply pointed papillae
- papillae taller and more pointed than in the warty species
- squarish cross-section
- length up to 50 cm

A brownish sea cucumber reaching about 50 cm (20 in), noticeably larger than the warty species it was long confused with, and separated from it by the papillae: here they are tall and sharply pointed rather than blunt knobs. The cross-section is squarish, the body wall soft, and the general coloring dull enough that the outline does most of the identifying.

It lives on sand and rubble at the base of reef, from about 2 m to 30 m (7 to 100 ft), sheltering by day and moving out to feed at night. Cherbonnier described it in 1967, and the name says exactly what the problem had been - specimens had been filed under the older species for years. Confusion of this kind runs right through the family, because preserved animals shrink and lose color, and the skeletal ossicles that settle the question require a microscope. For a diver the practical approach is to photograph the papillae in profile, which is the character that separates the two at a glance.

## Also known as

- **English:** Tubercule sea cucumber
- **Japanese:** ムチイボナマコ
- **Russian:** Стихопус ложнобородавчатый
- **ID:** Teripang duri

## Scientific synonyms

- *Stichopus pseudhorrens* Cherbonnier, 1967

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/echinoderms/sea-cucumber/false-warty-sea-cucumber)*
*Updated: August 20, 2026*