Echinocucumis Sars, 1859

O'Loughlin, P. Mark, Skarbnik-López, Jessica, Mackenzie, Melanie & VandenSpiegel, Didier, 2015, Sea cucumbers of the Kerguelen Plateau, with descriptions of new genus and species (Echinodermata: Holothuroidea), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 73, pp. 59-93 : 77

Echinocucumis Sars, 1859

Type species (type locality; diagnostic characters). Echinocucumis hispida ( Barrett, 1857) ( Norway; sub-spherical body with vertically up-turned oral and anal ends, body 10 mm wide (width of U-shape), ventral tube feet prominent, dorsal tube feet inconspicuous, plates with single composite marginal spine) .

Other assigned species (type localities; diagnostic characters). Echinocucumis globosa ( Ohshima, 1915) (Kyushu; body spherical, 9.5 mm long, dorsal and ventral tube feet, ossicle spines reduced or absent); E. hispida var. atypica Deichmann, 1930 (Havana; spines sometimes central on plates, spines more slender and tall than E. hispida ); E. kirrilyae O’Loughlin, 2009 ( E Antarctica, Enderby Land ; body fusiform, 6 mm long, tube feet ventral only, composite spines dendritic); E. multipodia Cherbonnier, 1965 ( Cameroon; spherical body, 7 mm long, tube feet around body, scales lack spines); E. paratypica Ludwig & Heding, 1935 ( Somalia; U-shaped body, 8.5 mm long, long tapered up-turned oral and anal ends); E. sphaericum ( Sluiter, 1901) (E Indonesia; U-shaped body, 18 mm long, abundant ventral tube feet, numbers of composite spines per scale); E. tenera Cherbonnier, 1958 ( Sierra Leone; U-shaped body, 25 mm long, dorsal and ventral tube feet).

Diagnosis. Mid-body sub-spherical, tapered non-retractile oral and anal ends, usually upturned; calcareous ring cucumariid-like, lacking posterior prolongations; tentacles 10, digitiform, unequal in size; tube feet sparse or absent, slender, restricted to ambulacra; body invested with large imbricating scales that are single-layered perforated plates, each scale with predominantly one tall spine arising near plate margin.

Remarks. Echinocucumis Sars, 1859 has been assigned to the Ypsilothuriidae Heding, 1942 in the order Dactylochirotida Pawson & Fell, 1965 . Smirnov (2012) abolished the Dactylochirotida and referred all the included taxa to the Dendrochirotida . Smirnov (2012) assigned the ypsilothuriid genus Echinocucumis to the subfamily Cucumariinae Ludwig, 1894 (sensu Panning 1949) within the family Cucumariidae Ludwig, 1894 . He based his decision on the work of Hansen (1988) who judged that Echinocucumis is similar to Staurocucumis Ekman, 1927 and Psolicucumis Heding, 1934 . These two latter genera are assigned to the Cucumariinae . We accept the judgment of Smirnov (2012) based on morphology but anticipate that molecular phylogenetic evidence will challenge many such current assignments.