5G0 ANOCHANUS SINENSIS. 



Anochanus sinensis 



! Anochamis sinensis Grube, 1868, Monatsb. Akad. Berlin, March, p. ITS. 



Grube does not give a detailed description of this remarkable sea-urchin, only 

 saving that it resembles Nucleolites epigonus. From a cursory examination 

 of the specimen it seems more closely allied to Eehinobrissus recens, and is of 

 about the same size. The young found in the breeding sac are circular, the 

 actinostome is central, while it is eccentric anteriorly, and transversely ellip- 

 tical in the adult; the primary spines are arranged in two principal rows 

 upon the interambulacra ; they have no apical breeding-sac nor anal furrow, 

 though what appears to be the anal opening is found above the ambitus. 

 somewhat behind the vertex. Grube says that the inner walls of the breed- 

 ing sac are lined with pedicellarise ; larger pedicellariae are found upon the 

 abactinal part of the test ; the spines are arranged without any apparent 

 order, and are of two kinds, — longer ones rather blunt, and shorter ones 

 spreading into a serrate extremity. There appears at the bottom of the sac a 

 plate leading into a stiff canal, which maydenote the position of the madreporic 

 body : but no trace of genital openings or of ovaries could be detected. The 



breeding sac is filled with a membrane strengthened by a limestone network, 

 suspended from the inturned edges of the opening of the sac on the abac- 

 tinal surface. The greater part of the inner cavity of the test is occupied 

 by the large digestive canal, commencing with a narrow (esophagus ; at the 

 junction of the (esophagus with the stomach are found two small diverticula. 

 The young appear, according to Grube, to develop on the lower side of the 

 breeding cavity, where they are enclosed by a small sac. It is supposed that 

 this sea-urchin came from the China Seas or East India Islands. 



East India Islands. 



