Lytechinus pictus

About L. pictus

The painted white urchin, Lytechinus pictus, is native to the East Pacific Ocean, with a geographic range spanning from Central California to Cedros Island, Mexico (Zigler and Lessios, 2004). L. pictus have been reported to live on sandy-bottoms and in sea grass bays, as well as in and around kelp beds at depths between 2-300m (Lawrence, 2006). It is the same species as Lytechinus anamesus (Cameron, 1984) (Zigler and Lessios, 2004).

L. pictus live between 7-9 years, and reach full size at approximately 4 cm in diameter in the lab. In the wild the average lifespan is estimated at approximately 3 years and average size is around 2 cm in diameter (Ebert, 1975). Their eggs are ~110 microns in diameter and are less pigmented than the eggs of S. purpuratus. The image to the right illustrates the differences between the eggs from L. pictus (left) and S. purpuratus (right). This species is best cultured between 20-24C and can reach competency to metamorphosis as quickly as 3 weeks post-fertilization. Newly settled animals are typically >1mm in diameter. Sexual maturity is reached as early as 4 months old, though more robust gamete production is typically reached at 6 months.

Nesbit, K. T., & Hamdoun, A. (2020). Embryo, larval, and juvenile staging of Lytechinus pictus from fertilization through sexual maturation. Developmental Dynamics.

Sequence and Scaffold statistics