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
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Biota (Monde)
Animalia (Règne)
Echinodermata (Embranchement)
Echinozoa (Sous-embranchement)
Echinoidea (Classe)
Euechinoidea (Sous-classe)
Carinacea (Infra-classe)
Echinacea (Subter-classe)
Camarodonta (Ordre)
Echinidea (infra-ordre)
Echinidae (Famille)
Echinus (Genre)
Echinus melo (Espèce)
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 2025-09-10.
Source : World Register of Marine Species
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Biota (Monde)
Animalia (Règne)
Echinodermata (Embranchement)
Echinozoa (Sous-embranchement)
Echinoidea (Classe)
Euechinoidea (Sous-classe)
Carinacea (Infra-classe)
Echinacea (Subter-classe)
Camarodonta (Ordre)
Echinidea (infra-ordre)
Echinidae (Famille)
Echinus (Genre)
Echinus melo (Espèce)
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://european-marine-life.org/30/echinus-melo.php, consulted on 2025 September 10.
Author
Chargée d’études en environnement marin
Plongeuse professionnelle - Naturaliste
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