Salmaciella oligopora H. L. Clark 1916

Family: Temnopleuridae

Order: Echinoida

Locality: Philippines, Mactan, deep water

Dimensions: 56 Ø x 25 mm (test)

 

Special features of this species are the banded ambital spines, which are shovel-like widened distally, the sunken peristome and the naked zones above the ambitus. Although Ashley Miskelly (Sea urchins of Australia and the Indo-Pacific, 2002, page 42) considers S. oligopora as endemic to Australia, I got this specimen from the Philippines. The seller called it very rare, what might be true for the Philippines. Also Heinke Schultz (Sea urchins, page 156) and formerly Th. Mortensen (A Monograph of the Echinoidea, III, 2., page 147) do not mention the Philippines for S. oligopora.