Heart Urchin

Moira atropos (Lamarck)

Spatangus atropos Lamarck, 1816:32. [For a synonymy, see Mortensen, 1951:329. Chesher, 1963, described the feeding mechanism; and Moore and Lopez, 1966, the ecology and productivity.]

This species lives in the same mud fields with Paraster doederleini Chesher, P. cf. P. floridiensis (Kier and Grant), and Brissopsis elongata Mortensen. They live buried 40–100 mm in the mud, and they can bury themselves (Plate 8: figures 8–10) beneath the surface in 12 minutes. They may bury deeper than 100 mm but, because of the mud’s great density, we were not able to dig deeper with our hands in search of them.

This species has previously been reported from the coast of North Carolina south to the coast of Brazil from littoral depths to 145 meters.