Western Pacific purple sea urchin

Heliocidaris erythrogramma

Other invertebrates
IUCN: Not evaluated

Usual depth5–10 m
Water temperature14–23 °C
Best monthsMarch, May, and June
How commonCommon

All species

Photo credit: (c) Christopher Mark, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Christopher Mark · CC BY · iNaturalist

About this species

Heliocidaris is a genus of sea urchins, part of the family Echinometridae.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Heliocidaris”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 551 records
February: 428 records
March: 885 records
April: 596 records
May: 636 records
June: 753 records
July: 364 records
August: 351 records
September: 452 records
October: 477 records
November: 525 records
December: 430 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 5–10 m · Deepest record: 287 m

0–10 m: 1,604 records
10–20 m: 256 records
20–30 m: 1 records
30–40 m: 2 records
40–50 m: 0 records
50–60 m: 0 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 3 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 14–23 °C

12–14 °C: 34 records
14–16 °C: 301 records
16–18 °C: 9 records
18–20 °C: 4 records
20–22 °C: 16 records
22–24 °C: 5 records

Photos

(c) Niki Hubbard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Belinda Forbes, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
no rights reserved · CC0 1.0 · iNaturalist
(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Mitch Van Dyke, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Belinda Forbes, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Western Pacific purple sea urchin

Other scientific names: Anthocidaris delalandi, Echinus (Toxopneustes) delalandi, Echinus erythrogrammus, Strongylocentrotus erythrogrammus, Strongylocentrotus eurythrogrammus, Toxocidaris erythrogramma, Toxopneustes delalandi

Similar species

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
4,650 open-data records from 1898 to 2024.
Species data updated November 3, 2026.

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