The most characteristic and the most voluminous part of the acanthinic skeleton in all Diploconida appears as the diploconical or nearly cylindrical solid "mantle" giving them their name and odd appearance (Pl. [140]). Usually this mantle is broader on its two opposite terminal openings than in its more or less constricted middle part. This latter is now more spherical or ellipsoidal, now more lenticular, and usually separated from the two cones by two slight transverse strictures. On the surface of this middle part twelve to eighteen radial spines, which in Diplocolpus are rudimentary or absent, are visible in Diploconus. The longitudinal axis of this shell is constantly occupied by a very large pair of opposite stout prismatic or cylindrical principal spines, which are united in the centre and usually more or less prominent with their distal apex over the two openings of the double cone.

In my first communication on the Diploconus (1862, loc. cit.) I correctly compared these two large spines in the prolonged main axis of the shell to the principal equatorial spines of Amphilonche (or to the "hydrotomical spines," c1, c3); but my explanation of the two peculiar cones enveloping them was erroneous. I supposed at that time that they were formed by the eight flattened and leaf-shaped curved tropical spines, so that around each principal spine the four neighbouring tropical spines (two of the northern and two of the southern hemisphere) had grow together by their edges and formed the peculiar conical sheath. I can now say that this opinion (afterwards adopted also by Hertwig) was quite erroneous, the two conical or funnel-shaped sheaths being the enlarged basal sheaths of the two hydrotomical spines, which we have already seen in the Hexalaspida (Pl. [139]). But whilst in these latter all six principal spines of the hydrotomical meridian plane are hypertrophied (two equatorial and four polar spines), in the nearly allied Diploconida only the two opposite equatorial spines are developed, whilst all other eighteen spines are more or less atrophied or quite rudimentary. In Diploconus the latter are more or less evident, whilst in Diplocolpus they disappear externally.

The true lattice-shell of the Acanthophracta (constantly composed of the meeting apophyses of twenty radial spines) is therefore represented in the Diploconida by the small roundish middle part of the whole shell, which is usually much smaller than the two opposite cones, and separated from them by the two slight transverse strictures. Usually this small but most important middle part of the shell is very dark and opaque, on account of its very thick wall and small pores; but in some species it is clear enough to ascertain that the structure of this lattice-shell is the same as in the lenticular Hexalaspida, there being a network of thick crests on the outer surface and small pores in the dimples between them. Indeed, in many (and probably in all) Diploconida the forty aspinal pores are present which we found in all Hexalaspida, Belonaspida, and Diporaspida, so that these four families of Acanthophracta represent one continuous phylogenetical series; Phractaspis among the Diporaspida is at the beginning, and Diplocolpus among the Diploconida at the end of this remarkably transformed morphological series.

The twenty radial spines in all Diploconida are probably united very firmly (or even perfectly grown together) in the centre of the small thick-walled lattice-shell, the inner space of which is extremely reduced. Probably, too, the sutures between the meeting apophyses of the thick radial spines are often (or even constantly) obliterated by concrescence, so that the whole shell forms a single piece of acanthin. But I regret that I cannot ascertain these and other points in the structure of the shell, as the small number of specimens observed did not permit an anatomical examination to be made. I have no doubt, however, that the structure of the whole of the middle main part of the shell is quite the same as in the lenticular shell of the thick-walled Hexalaspida, and that in both families each of the twenty radial spines bears originally only two opposite apophyses.

The characteristic mantle of the double cone of the Diploconida, or the basal sheath of their two large, perfectly developed principal spines is usually much larger than the shell itself, and more or less compressed from both poles of the shortened geotomical axis. Therefore the transverse section of the two cones is usually elliptical, more rarely circular. Their widest part is generally the distal opening; more rarely this is a little constricted. The thin transparent lamella of acanthin, representing the mantle of the double cone, is commonly ribbed or furrowed by longitudinal, parallel or divergent crests, and elegantly denticulated on the edge of the distal opening.

The two conical or cylindrical halves of the mantle are connected with the two enclosed principal spines not only at the base, where they arise from the small central lattice-shell, but also throughout a certain part of their length, by means of two, four, or six wings or leaves, which lie opposite and in pairs in the meridian planes of those spines. These meridian wings are more or less triangular (with broader concave outer bases), and connected by their axial edge with the spine and by their peripheral edge with the mantle. They separate two, four, or six conical spaces or pyramidal compartments in each cone. But these aspinal compartments and the separating septa are not new productions of the Diploconida, but are inherited from their ancestral family, the Hexalaspida (compare above, p. [873]).

The eighteen smaller spines in Diploconus are either of nearly equal size or more or less differentiated. The eight tropical spines are often much larger than the eight polar spines. The two geotomical spines, (or the two opposite equatorial spines of the shortened geotomical axis) are often quite rudimentary. In Diplocolpus the external part (outside the shell) is in all eighteen smaller spines rudimentary or atrophied.

The Central Capsule, as shown by Hertwig, contains numerous small nuclei, and is divided into three parts by the above named two transverse strictures; the smaller central part (in the original lenticular lattice-shell) and the two opposite larger parts, filling up the greater part of the two conical or cylindrical sheaths, and more or less adopting their form. Corresponding to the shell itself the enclosed capsule is often more or less flattened, being compressed at both poles of the geotomical axis. The pseudopodia seem to proceed only from the two large polar apertures of the sheaths, and form therefore two opposite conical tufts or bunches.

Synopsis of the Genera of Diploconida.
All twenty spines more or less developed (sometimes eight of them rudimentary),380. Diploconus.
Only the two hydrotomical spines developed (all the eighteen others rudimentary),381. Diplocolpus.