The Echinoid Directory

Prometalia Pomel, 1883, p. 34

Diagnostic Features	Test ovate with shallow anterior sulcus; Anterior face steeply truncate. Depressed in profile. Apical disc ethmolytic with four gonopores; strongly anterior in position. Anterior ambulacrum sunken from apex to peristome; deepest at ambitus. Pore-pairs small and undifferentiated. Paired ambulacra petaloid; anterior petals almost at 180 degrees; extending to ambitus. Posterior petals slightly longer; not reaching ambitus. Petals sunken, narrow and parallel-sided. Peristome D-shaped; partially covered by labral plate. Labral plate short and wide; not extending beyond ambulacral plate 1. Sternal plates large, triangular. Episternal plates forming integral part of plastron; not strongly contracted posteriorly. Periproct on slightly undercut posterior face; just visible in oral view. Bounded on oral side by plates 5.a.5 and 5.b.5. Subanal fasciole present; bilobed. Peripetalous fasciole present; narrow; indented behind anterior petals. Aboral tuberculation homogeneous; slightly coarser around anterior margin.
Distribution	Recent, Indo-Pacific.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Brissus robillardi de Loriol, 1876, p. 9, by original designation.
Species Included	P. robillardi (de Loriol, 1876); Recent, Indo-Pacific.
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Micrasterina, Brissidae. Monotypic; junior synonym of Metalia Gray, 1855.
Remarks	Pomel (1883) erected this genus on the basis of incorrect drawings by de Loriol according to Mortensen (1951). Mortensen considered this genus a junior synonym of Metalia. Mortensen, T. 1951. A monograph of the Echinoidea. V.2. Spatangoida. C. A. Reitzel, Copenhagen. Pomel, A. 1883. Classification méthodique et genera des Échinides vivante et fossiles. Thèses présentées a la Faculté des Sciences de Paris pour obtenir le Grade de Docteur ès Sciences Naturelles, 503, 131 pp. Aldolphe Jourdan, Alger.