The Echinoid Directory

Kupeia McKnight, 1974, p. 37

Diagnostic Features	Test subglobular; thin-shelled and fragile. Apical disc ethmophract, with 3 gonopores (no gonopore in genital plate 2). Anterior ambulacrum narrow and slightly sunken adapically; pore-pairs and tube-feet specialized within peripetalous fasciole (tube-feet penicillate). Anterior petals short and slightly depressed with anterior column of pore-pairs rudimentary. Posterior petals twice as long, almost parallel; depressed; closing distally. Periproct on vertically truncate face. Peristome slightly anterior; wider than long; kidney-shaped. Labral plate longer than wide; extending to midway along second ambulacral plate. Sternal plates fully tuberculate. Aboral tuberculation with densely scattered tubercles and fine granules. Well-developed peripetalous fasciole; not indented interradially. No other fascioles.
Distribution	Recent, New Zealand; 1000-1046 m.
Name gender	feminine
Type	Kupeia toi McKnight, 1974, p. 38, by original designation.
Species Included	Only the type species.
Classification and/or Status	Spatangoida, Hemiasterina, Hemiasteridae. Monotypic.
Remarks	Differs from Hemiaster and all other hemiasterids and palaeostomids in having the anterior paired petals much shorter than the posterior pair (in Hemiaster it is the other way around), and in having three gonopores. Differs from Cyclaster in lacking a subanal fasciole. McKnight, D. G. 1974. Some echinoids new to New Zealand waters. New Zealand Oceanographic Institute Records 2, 25-43.