Small, short-spined species with a distinctive appearance. The primary spines are yellow with pink tips, the secondary spines pink and the tube feet long and dark. Like a very closely related sea urchin found in the eastern states, Amblypneustes formosus, the species has a distinctive zigzag pattern of diamond-shaped patches running down the interambulacral area of the test. Rarely seen by divers, perhaps because of its small size, but is sometimes caught in dredge or trawl.

• Max Size: 3 cm
• Sea Temperature Range: 14.4-23.2°C
• Depth: 1-180m
• Habitat: Rocky Reef, Seagrass

• IUCN Threat Status: Not Evaluated
• Occurrence: Infrequent (4% of sites)
  Occurrence describes how often the species is found on surveys within its distribution. It is calculated as the % of reef sites surveyed by RLS divers across all the ecoregions in which the species has been observed
• Abundance: Few (3 per transect)
  Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.