Animalia > Echinodermata > Echinoidea > Diadematoida > Diadematidae > Diadema > Diadema antillarum

Diadema antillarum (long-spined sea urchin; lime urchin; black sea urchin)

Synonyms: Centrechinus antillarum; Cidaris antillarum; Diadema antillarum antillarum

Wikipedia Abstract

Diadema antillarum, also known as the lime urchin, black sea urchin, Grabaskey's bane or the long-spined sea urchin, is a species of sea urchin in the Family Diadematidae. This sea urchin is characterized by its exceptionally long black spines. It is the most abundant and important herbivore on the coral reefs of the western Atlantic and Caribbean basin. When the population of these sea urchins is at a healthy level, they are the main grazers which prevent algae overgrowth of the reef.
View Wikipedia Record: Diadema antillarum

Infraspecies

Diadema antillarum ascensionis

Attributes

Nocturnal [1]  Yes
Water Biome [1]  Reef
Diet [1]  Omnivore

Prey / Diet

Predators

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Syndesmis antillarum[7]

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2Impact of coral predators on tropical reefs, Randi D. Rotjan, Sara M. Lewis, Mar Ecol Prog Ser 367: 73–91, 2008
♦ 3Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 4Predation of the Sea Urchin Diadema antillarum Philippi on Living Coral, Rolf P. M. Bak and Guillaume van Eys, Oecologia (Berl.) 20, 111-115 (1975)
♦ 5Responses of Two Coral Reef Toadfishes (Batrachoididae) to the Demise of Their Primary Prey, the Sea Urchin Diadema antillarum, D. Ross Robertson, Copeia, 1987(3), pp. 637-642
♦ 6Food Habits of Reef Fishes of the West Indies, John E. Randall, Stud. Trop. Oceanogr. 5, 665–847 (1967)
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0