twenty spines are provided with prominent basal sheaths, which are truncate conical, sulcate, and dentate on the narrowed distal mouth. The sheaths of the six hydrotomical spines are twice to three times as large as those of the fourteen smaller spines.
Dimensions.—Diameter of the shell 0.15; length of the spines 0.12; basal breadth of the equatorial spines 0.04, of the other spines 0.02; length of the hydrotomical sheaths 0.05, of the other sheaths 0.02.
Habitat.—Central Pacific, Station 274, surface.
6. Hexaconus echinatus, n. sp. (Pl. 140, fig. 12).
Six hydrotomical spines of unequal size; the two equatorial, and their sheaths twice as large as the four polar spines. These six spines are six-edged, pyramidal, and their basal half enveloped by very large conical sheaths which are sulcate, and twice as broad on the dentate distal mouth as on the narrower base. The other fourteen spines are very thin, two-edged, half as long, with low sheaths. Approaches some forms of Diploconus.
Dimensions.—Diameter of the shell 0.15; length of the equatorial spines 0.13, of the polar spines 0.08.
Habitat.—Indian Ocean, Belligemma, Ceylon, Haeckel, surface.
Genus 378. Hexonaspis,[1] n. gen.
Definition.—Hexalaspida with six prominent radial spines (in the hydrotomical plane) which are not surrounded by prominent sheaths; the fourteen other spines quite rudimentary, not prominent.
The genus Hexonaspis and the following Hexacolpus differ from the two preceding genera in the rudimentary shape of the fourteen reduced and stunted smaller spines; these are only developed inside the shell, and are not prominent outside over its surface.
Subgenus 1. Hexonasparium, Haeckel.
Definition.—Six hydrotomical spines of equal size.
1. Hexonaspis heliosestrum, n. sp.
All six hydrotomical spines of nearly equal size, isosceles triangular, compressed, smooth, about as long as the diameter of the shell and three times as long as broad at the base. This species is very similar to Hexalaspis heliodiscus (Pl. 139, fig. 2), but differs in the larger size of the six marginal spines and in the complete external absence of the fourteen smaller spines.
- ↑ Hexonaspis = Shield with six auricles; ἕξονος, ἀσπίς.
