Sea lamington - Tripneustes australiae (also "Collector Urchin")

Description:

Named after the tasty Aussie cake, or the habit that it has of collecting algae that is drifting by. You can see the fine tentacles that stick out to grab the algae so it can be eaten; they are quite different to the white spines. All of the T. gratilla at Camp Cove today were holding little "hats" of algae. Cute!