Toxopneustes pileolus (Lamarck, 1816)

Material studied. WUSL/ER/273 (wet, with spines) from Silavathurai and WUSL/ER/274 (dry, with spines) from Polhena; WUSL/ER/275 (dry, denuded) from Negombo.

Literature records for Sri Lanka. Walter (1885), Döderlein (1888), Herdman et al. (1904), Clark (1915), Koehler (1927), Fernando (2006), Jayakody (2012).

Distribution in Sri Lanka. Northern, southern, and western coasts of Sri Lanka.

Recorded depth range in Sri Lanka. 0.5– 12 m (present study), 13–48 m (previous records) .

Habitat. Rocky reef areas, seagrass beds.

Observed occurrence in this study. Northern (Silavathurai), southern (Polhena, Hikkaduwa, Hiriketiya, Ahangama), and western coasts (Negombo) of Sri Lanka.

Remarks. When the animal is alive, the test takes on the appearance of a flower garden because of the dense covering of large, bright reddish and white, three-jawed globiferous pedicellariae. In contrast, the denuded test has distinct greenish to purplish bands arranged concentrically. This species can be distinguished from the other two toxopneustid species recorded in this study, Pseudoboletia maculata and Tripneustes gratilla gratilla, because the former has clear arcs of three pore pairs each in the ambulacra, and the latter has denser tuberculation and lacks the green banding on the denuded test (in addition, its test is much higher and shows three discrete vertical series of pore pairs in each ambulacral column rather than a broad band of pores).