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Echinoderms from Southern New Zealand

Family Cidaridae — Goniocidaris Agassiz and Desor, 1846 — Goniocidaris umbraculum (Hutt., 1872)

Family Cidaridae
Goniocidaris Agassiz and Desor, 1846

Goniocidaris umbraculum (Hutt., 1872)

  • East coast of Canterbury, between Moeraki and Timaru, 40 to 60 fathoms, January, 1951; coll. P. M. Ralph; one specimen.

The species is restricted to New Zealand, where it is known only between Cook Strait and Stewart Island, on the eastern coast of the South Island. The single specimen does not differ from Mortensen's account, and is similarly coloured to his specimens. Among the epizoic animals carried on the spines is an acorn-barnacle (Balanus sp.), a calcareous sponge, and miscellaneous polyzoa. The majority of the upper spines are completely invested by these organisms. To a lesser extent, the same is to be observed in Ogmocidaris benhami, where I have also noted the tubicolous annelid Spirorbis attached to the proximal parts of spines; O. benhami, however, is as yet unknown from southern New Zealand waters.