Coelopleurus+exquisitus

//**__COELOPLEURUS EXQUISITUS__** //

 * [[image:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/images/1049/coelopleurus-exquisitus-01_59673_1.jpg caption="Coelopleurus exquisitus"]] ||
 * //Coelopleurus exquisitus// ||


 * [[image:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/images/1049/coelopleurus-exquisitus-03_59674_1.jpg caption="Coelopleurus exquisitus"]] ||
 * //Coelopleurus exquisitus// ||

GENERAL OVERVIEW Coelopleurus L. Agassiz, 1840 is a genus of regular sea urchin in the family Arbaciidae Gray, 1855. Eleven Recent species, including several varieties/subspecies have been described (sensu Mortensen, 1935), all of which are found in the tropics at depths from 55 m to 2380 m (Mortensen, 1935). These sea urchins live on hard substrates feeding on encrusting organisms and have long protective spines to ward off predators. They also have large numbers of ophicephalous pedicellariae (small pincer-like appendages) to remove and disable fouling organisms that try to settle on the test (the urchin's "shell"). Species in this genus are typically brightly coloured, with large naked and highly patterned interambulacra. This has made them highly desirable to collectors.
 * [[image:http://www.nhm.ac.uk/resources-rx/images/1049/coelopleurus-exquisitus-02_59675_1.jpg caption="Coelopleurus exquisitus"]] ||
 * //Coelopleurus exquisitus// ||

FEEDING HABITS //Coelopleurus// (Keraiophorus) //exquisitus// feed primarily using their lantern to bite and rasp. Many shallow-water forms are almost exclusively algivores, feeding on seaweeds, grasses and encrusting algae. Others are more generalist, feeding on sessile organisms, carrion and detritus on the sea floor.Echinostrephus, a rock-boring species, is dependent upon catching drift algae that passes across the mouth of its burrow. Little is known about the __diet__ of deep-sea regular echinoids but they are presumably broad generalists and carnivores on sluggish or sessile organisms. Reproduction

n sea urchins the sexes are separate, although in most cases males and females are externally identical. The life cycle begins with the release of vast numbers of sperm and eggs into the water column. Spawning usually takes place synchronously within populations, probably chemically mediated. Eggs are fertilised in the water column and proceed to develop rapidly into adults.

EXTRA INFORMATION Tests up to 35 mm in diameter and with long, curved spines. The spines are banded red and pale green for most of their length.

The test has large, straight-edged, naked median zones in the upper part of its 5 interambulacra and these are purple in color, in contrast to the test’s olive/light brown epithelium. Each zone has a meandering pinkish to lavender undulating line running up it.

There are 12 species of Keraiophorus, each with its own distinct color patterning.

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