Tripneustes australiae
Lamington urchin | Tripneustes kermadecensis
Distribution
Description
Formerly Tripneustes kermadecensis, thought to be endemic to the Kermedec Islands, and now known to range from Australia's subtropical and temperate east coast including the offshore islands Lord Howe and Norfolk, to the west coast of New Zealand's North Island and the Kermadec Islands. Tubefeet are characteristically unbanded, and test is flatter in profile than similar species T. gratilla.
Read more about this species' reclassification HERE.
Information
Max Size: N/A cm
Sea Temperature Range: N/A
Depth: N/A
Habitat Generalization Index: N/A
Also referred to as the SGI (Species Generalisation Index), this describes the habitat niche breadth of the species. Species with values less than 15 are found in a relatively narrow range of reef habitat types (specialists), while those over 25 may be found on most hard substrates within their range (generalists). Learn more here.
Conservation and Rarity
IUCN Status: Not Evaluated
Occurrence: Frequent (15.7% 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: Many (57 per transect)
Abundance is calculated as the average number of individuals recorded per RLS transect, where present.
Edit by: Jo Schmid