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Echinoderms from Southern New Zealand

Family Spatangidae

Family Spatangidae

Spatangus Mueller, 1776

Spatangus multispinus Mrtsn., 1925

  • Cape Campbell, 20 fathoms, soft mud bottom, September, 1949; one specimen.

In life, the species is bright purple, fading after preservation to dull mauve. It is known so far only from the Cape Campbell area.

Echinocardium Gray, 1825

Echinocardium cordatum (Pennant, 1777)

Synonym: Echinocardium australe Gray, 1851, et auctt.

  • New Golden Hind stations: NGH 1, two specimens; NGH 3, three specimens; NGH 56a, two specimens.
  • Alert stations: 1, one specimen, not common; 3, two specimens, but very abundant; 4, one specimen, not common; 6, one specimen, not common; 10, one specimen, but abundant here; 12, one specimen, not common; 19, eight specimens, one very large; 29, two specimens, abundant.
  • Also, near entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound. 20 to 30 fathoms, May, 1950; W. H. Dawbin; one specimen.

The large specimen from Alert station 19 (Stewart Island) measures as follows: Length, 69 mm.; breadth, 66 mm.; height, 38 mm.

page 36

H. L. Clark (1946), who has taken the step of merging the Australian Echino-cardium australe with the Atlantic species E. cordatum, states that specimens from the southern hemisphere attain only about half the size of those from Great Britain, rarely exceeding 45 mm. in length. The above record shows that large forms do occur. Mortensen (1921) considers the New Zealand and Australian forms to be identical, and so, in view of the change in nomenclature in Australia, it seems desirable to follow suit in New Zealand.

That the species occurs in Chalky Inlet was shown by Farquhar in 1898.