SOME ECHINODERMS FROM THE EGYPTIAN MEDITERRANEAN WATERS

SOME ECHINODERMS FROM THE EGYPTIAN

MEDITERRANEAN WATERS

By
M.EL-BESHBEESHY*
* National Institute of Oceanography & Fisheries, Alexandria-Egypt.
Key Words :Taxonomy, Echinoderms, Mediterranean.
ABSTRACT
This paper describes 12 species of Echinoderms, they belong ‘to’
classes: Echinoidea, Asteroidea and Ophiuroidea. The material were
collected along the Egyptian Mediterranean waters in Area lies between
EI Dabaa & Port Said and on two shelfstations of “Meteor” cruise 25
leg 1 at depthes: 194-1017 m. All species are illustrated, and
information is given on their Morphology an~ distribution. According to
the available literature 4 species seem to be new records for the
Egyptian Mediterranean waters: Psammechinus microtuberculatus
(Blainville, 1825), Sphaerodiscus placenta (Muller et Troschel, 1842),
Astropecten aranciacus (Linne, 1758) and Echinaster sepositus (Gray,
1840).