The Echinoid Directory

Tropholampas H.L. Clark, 1923, p. 395

Diagnostic Features	Test small, subconical to ovoid, highly inflated, flattened orally, centrally depressed towards peristome, greatest width and height at centre. Apical system anterior, tetrabasal with four gonopores, apical system deeply sunken in females forming a marsupium, only slightly concave in males, gonopores show sexual dimorphism. Ambulacra narrow, somewhat discontinuous, simple, apetaloid, with a row of very small single pores in each half ambulacrum. Peristome central, subovate. Periproct marginal, on posterior truncation. Phyllodes simple with a uniserial series of expanded pores. Buccal pores small. Bourrelets slightly developed. Tubercles small, sparsely distributed. Naked sternal zone present in interambulacrum 5.
Distribution	Recent, South Africa.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Catopygus loveni Struder, 1880, p. 878; by monotypy.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Irregularia; Cassiduloida; Incertae sedis.
Remarks	Struder (1880) states that there are five genital plates in the type species. Mortensen (1948, p. 343) who collected specimens of the the type species reports that this is an error, with there being only four genital plates. Mortensen describes well-developed genital papillae in the males, with the genital pores in the female being located deep down in the marsupium. Similar to Anochanus the marsupium is protected by a 'hood' of spines. When establishing this genus Clark (1923) emphasizes the relationship between Tropholampas and Neolampas, but fails to compare his genus with the morphologically similar Anochanus. Both genera have a sunken apical disc, with a distinct marsupium present in the females. Tropholampas differs from Anochanus by the more rudimentary condition of its ambulacra, and by the marginal position of its periproct, this being supramarginal in Anochanus. H. L. Clark. 1923. The Echinoderm fauna of South Africa. Annals of the South African Museum, 13, pp. 221-435, pls 8-23. T. Mortensen. 1948. A monograph of the Echinoidea: 4 (1): Holectypoida, Cassiduloida. Reitzel, Copenhagen, 363 pp., 14 pls. T. Struder. 1880. Ubersicht uber die wahrend der Reise S. M. S. Corvette Gazelle um die Erde 1874-76 gesammelten Echinoiden. Monatsbericht Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, pp. 861- 885 (fig. 1a).