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''Toxopneustes pileolus'', commonly known as the flower urchin, is a widespread and commonly encountered species of sea urchin from the Indo-West Pacific. It is considered highly dangerous, as it is capable of delivering extremely painful and medically significant stings when touched. It inhabits coral reefs, seagrass beds, and rocky or sandy environments at depths of up to . It feeds on algae, bryozoans, and organic detritus. Its common name is derived from its numerous and distinctively flower-like pedicellariae, which are usually pinkish-white to yellowish-white in color with a central purple dot. It possesses short and blunt spines, though these are commonly hidden beneath the pedicellariae. The rigid "shell" (test) is a variegated deep red and gray in color, though in rare cases it may be greenish to light purple. ==Taxonomy== ''Toxopneustes pileolus'' is one of four species belonging to the genus ''Toxopneustes''. It belongs to the family Toxopneustidae in the order Camarodonta. It was originally described as ''Echinus pileolus'' by the French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1816, in the second book of his ''Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres'' series. It was later used as the type species for the newly created genus ''Toxopneustes'' by the Swiss American biologist Louis Agassiz. The generic name ''Toxopneustes'' literally means "poison breath", derived from Greek τοξικόν () (''toksikón ()'', "arrow ()") and πνευστος (''pneustos'', "breath"). The specific name ''pileolus'' means "little cap" or "skullcap", from Latin ''pileus'', a kind of brimless conical felt cap. In English, ''Toxopneustes pileolus'' is most widely known as the "flower urchin".〔 It is also sometimes known under various other common names, including "trumpet sea urchin", "flower tip urchin", "felt cap sea urchin", and "poison claw sea urchin". In the seashell collecting trade, ''Toxopneustes pileolus'' is known as the "mushroom urchin", due to their spineless empty shells (tests) resembling the caps of mushrooms. It is also known as ''tapumiti'' in Samoan; ''tehe-tehe batu'' in Sinama and Tausug; ''rappa-uni'' (ラッパウニ) or ''dokugaze'' (毒ガゼ) in Japanese;〔〔 and ''lǎbā dú jí hǎi dǎn'' (喇叭毒棘海膽) in Chinese. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Flower urchin」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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