348 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 8 



owing to the relatively delicate test most of these, unless very small, were 

 more or less damaged when taken. The very long primary spines are 

 exceedingly slender and fragile and are commonly broken of:f to a con- 

 siderable extent, and the test itself is more often broken than not. The 

 largest specimen in the collection is from the Galapagos Islands and 

 measures 75 x 51 x 20 mm. The anterior left corner and most of the large 

 primaries are gone. Another very large specimen is 55 mm across but it is 

 badly damaged at the posterior end so its living length cannot be deter- 

 mmed. Many of the specimens are less than 10 mm in length, some less 

 than 5 mm, and these small ones are easily confused with other young 

 Spatangoids but if the condition of the specimen permits the internal 

 fasciole to be seen, there can be no confusion of Lovenia with other genera. 



The color of these striking Spatangoids is diverse, ranging from a light 

 gray brown with the long primary spines pure white to a deep yellowish 

 brown or a gray brown with the primaries not essentially different. The 

 gray brown shades into lavender and purple, with the long spines con- 

 spicuously banded. The handsomest specimens are definitely light purple, 

 fading into light brown or dirty white orally. The long spines on the sides 

 and orally are unicolor, lavender or very pale brown, but dorsally they are 

 prettily banded with light brown, pale orange or dirty white, and lavender 

 or purple. The long spines of ambulacrum 3 are nearly white with widely 

 separated very narrow bands of dark purple. Bare tests are a light dingy 

 lavender or yellow brown, if not bleached, and the sunken primary 

 tubercles, large oddly shaped "petals" and conspicuous inner fasciole make 

 them unusually interesting curios. 



Distribution. — Lovenia is a striking feature of shore and shallow 

 water collecting at Newport and Corona del Mar. Further north it ranges 

 to San Pedro and the Channel Islands, where it has been taken in 17-75 

 fms. The northern limit of its range is apparently just above 34°. It is 

 fairly common in the Gulf of California, as far north as 29° 33', in water 

 2-75 fms deep. Rather common on the west coast of Mexico, it extends its 

 range to the Secas and Jicarita Islands, Panama, in 12-30 fms. The Velero 

 took it twice at Braithwaite Bay, Socorro Island, twice at Cocos Island 

 and twice in the Galapagos Islands, at Chatham and Albemarle Islands 

 in 4 and 30 fms. It seems a little strange that more specimens were not 

 secured at the Galapagos Islands, for so conspicuous a shallow water sea- 

 urchin is not easily overlooked. 



Type.—M.C.Z. no. 3188 (Cotype). 



Type locality. — "San Diego, Guaymas." 



Df/.//!.— Shore to 75 fms. 



Specimens examined. — 100 specimens from 44 stations. 



