Asthenosoma varium is a sea urchin (an echinoderm, a member of the phylum that also includes star fish). Growing up to 25 cm (10 in) in diameter, it lives on sand and rubble sea bottoms in the Indo-Pacific, from the Red Sea to Australia and Southern Japan. Its venom tipped spines, with distinctive globular swellings below the tip, can inflict a painful sting if handled; the pain lasts as long as several hours. This capacity, perhaps coupled with its reddish-brown colour, has given it the common name fire urchin; other commonly used names are Pacific fire urchin, elusive sea urchin, variable fire urchin, and electric sea urchin.
It plays host to the commensal shrimps Periclimenes colemani and Allopontonia brockii, and the zebra crab, Zebrida adamsii.[1]
^Gosliner, T.; D. Behrens & G. Williams (1996). Coral Reef Animals of the Indo-Pacific. p. 271.
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Asthenosomavarium is a sea urchin (an echinoderm, a member of the phylum that also includes star fish). Growing up to 25 cm (10 in) in diameter, it lives...
the Indo-Pacific, and was till 1998 considered a color variant of Asthenosomavarium. Sea urchins are close relatives of starfish, crinoids, brittle stars...
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skeletons, most are called "leather urchins", but species in the genus Asthenosoma are also known as "fire urchins" due to their bright colors and painful...
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