HIPPONOE ESCULENTA. 501 



Hipponoe esculenta 



! Cularis esculenta (Leslie), 1778, Kl. Add. 

 ! Hipponoe esculenta A. AG., 1872, Rev. Ech., Pt. I. p. 135. 

 (See Part II. p. 301.) 



PL VI. f. 28-29; PL VP.f.i-s; PI. VIII. f. 29. 



Florida ; West Indies ; Surinam. 



Hipponoe variegata 



! Cidaris variegata Leske, 1778, Kr.. Add. 



! Hipponoe variegata A. Ac, 1872, Rev. Ech., Pt. I. p. 135. 



PI IV. f. 5~e; PL XXV. f. e-7. 



As the Synonymy shows, this is one of the most variable of the species of 

 Echini in general appearance and in outline. Some specimens are nearly 

 globular, others greatly depressed, others with a pentagonal outline from 

 above, and re-entering median interambulacra near the ambitus ; the out- 

 line in profile varying from depressed to globular or conical. The general 

 appearance of this widely distributed species is such as readily to separate 

 it from the American species of the same genus. In the first place, the small 

 size of the tubercles and their smaller number are eminently characteristic of 

 this species. The median ambulacral and interambulacral spaces are gen- 

 erally bare from the abactinal pole to the ambitus, being covered by a few 

 small miliaries far apart. The anal system is comparatively very large ; the 

 abactinal system is more circular, less pentagonal, owing to the smaller 

 size of the genital plates, than in the West India species. The poriferous 

 zone is also much narrower ; the actinostome larger ; the spines much 

 more slender. The coloring of the specimens is. best shown by the names 

 of some of its synonymes, — violaceus, subcoeruleus, nigricans, — showing 

 the range of coloration ; the pentagonal specimens (pentagonus) having a 

 more brownish yellow coloration, much as in the West India specimens. 

 The buccal membrane is scarcely covered by calcareous plates ; the plates 

 of the anal system are smaller and more numerous than in the West India 

 species. 



Sandwich Islands ; Japan ; East India Islands ; Feejee Islands ; Red Sea ; Mozambique. 



