Corsica, France, 25 meters, WD
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.
Echinus melo is found in the Mediterranean Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean from the Azores to the Bay of Biscay.
Source : World Register of Marine Species
Biota (Superdomain)
Animalia (Kingdom)
Echinodermata (Phylum)
Echinozoa (Subphylum)
Echinoidea (Class)
Euechinoidea (Subclass)
Carinacea (Infraclass)
Echinacea (Subterclass)
Camarodonta (Order)
Echinidea (Infraorder)
Echinidae (Family)
Echinus (Genus)
Echinus melo (Species)
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.
Text : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2006 - 2025.
Photos : ©
William Desmartin. Published with his kind permission.
Websites and reference works : Consult bibliography
Image satellite: © Esri, DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, Earthstar Geographics, CNES/Airbus DS, USDA, USGS, AeroGRID, IGN, and the GIS User Community.
Données de distribution : Echinus melo Lamarck, 1816 in GBIF Secretariat (2019). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-09-17.
Source : World Register of Marine Species
Biota (Superdomain)
Animalia (Kingdom)
Echinodermata (Phylum)
Echinozoa (Subphylum)
Echinoidea (Class)
Euechinoidea (Subclass)
Carinacea (Infraclass)
Echinacea (Subterclass)
Camarodonta (Order)
Echinidea (Infraorder)
Echinidae (Family)
Echinus (Genus)
Echinus melo (Species)
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.
Text : Anne Bay-Nouailhat © 2006 - 2025.
Photos : ©
William Desmartin. Published with his kind permission.
Websites and reference works : Consult bibliography
Bay-Nouailhat A., March 2006, Description of Echinus melo, [On line] https://www.european-marine-life.org/30/echinus-melo.php, consulted on 2025 September 17.
Author
Chargée d’études en environnement marin
Plongeuse professionnelle - Naturaliste
© Mer et littoral 2004-2025 - All rights reserved
The texts and images on this website are not free of rights and cannot be copied and/or used without the agreement of their respective authors.
Print
Download