Echinus melo Lamarck, 1816

Description

Echinus melo is a globular sea urchin of up to 17 cm in diameter. Spines are scarce and of two types: short thin greenish-yellow spines, called secondary spines, and long thin olive-green spines with whitish tips, called primary spines. Primary spines are rarer: they are laid out in a single row on the interambulacral plates. Test colour is variable: pale yellow with orange spots or sometimes greenish yellow. It lives on rocks from 25 m to depths down to several hundred meters, but it is abondant around 40 m deep.

Distribution

Echinus melo is found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean from the Azores to the Bay of Biscay.

Classification

Source : World Register of Marine Species

Biota (Superdomain)
Animalia (Kingdom)
Echinodermata (Phylum)
Echinozoa (Subphylum)
Echinoidea (Class)
Euechinoidea (Subclass)
Carinacea (Infraclass)
Echinacea (Superorder)
Camarodonta (Order)
Echinidea (Infraorder)
Echinidae (Family)
Echinus (Genus)
Echinus melo (Species)

Page glossary

Test : rigid skeleton of sea urchins.

Interambulacral plates : test plates placed between the ambulacral plates.

Ambulacral plates : test plates pierced by numerous holes through which tube-feet can extend.

Tube foot : tube-shaped element ending by a sucker-disc used to attach to subtratum.

Authors

Text : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2006 - 2021.

Photos : © William Desmartin. Published with his kind permission.
Websites and reference works : Consult bibliography

How to cite this page

Bay-Nouailhat A., March 2006, Description of Echinus melo, [On line] http://www.european-marine-life.org/30/echinus-melo.php, consulted on 2021 September 22.