Echinoderms · Marine Life · Urchins

Cape urchin (Parechinus angulosus)

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Purple urchin shading himself with the egg of a ray or a shark. Fishhoek, Western Cape (2020) – iNaturalist

Also called ‘pumpkin shell’.

Test round, densely covered in shortish, pointed spines which vary in length but never exceed about one-fifth test diameter.
Colour variable, most often purple, but also green, red or pale.

About 60 mm.

Abundant on rocky shores in the Western and Eastern Cape, and in kelp bed, extending down to 30 m. Sometimes found into weed-beds of estuaries from mid-tide down.
It is an important grazer that controls the survival of newly settled kelp plants. Feeds on encrusting life of all sorts. Use dead shells (amongst other items) as a ‘sunshade’.

Two Oceans: A Guide to the Marine Life of Southern Africa (1994, 2016); A guide to marine life on South African shores (Day, 1969)

Details of the mouth of a purple Cape urchin. Cape Agulhas, Western Cape (2020) – iNaturalist
Purple urchin in a shallow rock pool. Fishhoek, Western Cape (2020) – iNaturalist
Urchins shading themselves from the sun with dead shells in a gulley. Hermanus, Western Cape (2020) – iNaturalist
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