Loxechinus albus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Loxechinus albus | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Picture of a Chilean sea urchin and a Picoroco
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Loxechinus albus Molina, 1782 |
Loxechinus albus or Chilean sea urchin is an echinoderm of the family Echinidae, native to the coastes of Chile and Peru. It is found shallowly buried in fine sand, and muddy sand, beaches at and below low tide level.
Loxechinus albus is a circular sea urchin densely covered in small spines. The spawning period varies along the Chilean coast Spawning period occurs later in the year as latitude increases; at 23° S it occurs in June, at 45° S (Chiloé) it occurs en November-December. The populations inhabiting the Magellan Region ( 53° S) are an exeption since their spawning period lasts from July to September.
Their maximum width is up to 100 mm.

