Systematics
Class ECHINOIDEA Leske, 1778.
Order SPATANGOIDA Claus, 1876.
Suborder MICRASTERINA Fischer, 1966.
Family LOVENIIDAE Lambert, 1905.
Genus Lovenia Desor, 1847.
Lovenia cordiformis Agassiz, 1872.
The specimen had the typical shape of heart urchins, with a larger length (46.50 mm) than width (35.83 mm), and a height of 20.72 mm with a flat oral surface. The convex dorsal surface was covered by small brown hair-like spines, which gives the animal the appearance of a coconut shell. There were evident scattered long serrated spines with a clear banded coloration pattern of brown-reddish and pale-yellowish bands. These scattered spines run backward along the longer axis, as if they were combed (Fig. 1).
Considering the size of the specimen and the holes dug in the substrate where it was found, the specimen should had been dwelling within the first 15 cm deep in the sandy substrate. The substrate consisted on runoff land-sediments with calcareous sands and coral rubble mixture, where some scattered living coral Pocillopora spp. colonies are found unattached along with massive colonies like Pavona spp. and Gardineroseris planulata.
Despite Mortensen’s monography (1951), who reported the continental distribution of L. cordiformis including Ecuador, the distribution of the species as depicted in different available online resources (e.g. World Echinoidea Database) only places the species in southern California, around the Peninsula of Baja and along the coast of Panama. With this report and according to our review of available data, the updated geographical distribution of the species includes the coasts of Southern California, Mexico, Panama and Colombia, and the oceanic islands Coco and the Galapagos (Maluf 1988; Lessios 2005; Honey-Escandón et al.
2008; Cortés 2012), while no records are reported for Malpelo Island, where the geomorphology (mostly rocky walls and the lack of shallow sandy bottoms), may hinder its occurrence.
Following the recent review by Benavides-Serrato et al. (2013) and this new record, the echinoderm richness in Colombia now totals 384 species, of which 32.6 % (125 spp.) inhabits the Pacific coast, with Gorgona Island reaching 42 species. It seems that these echinoids are fairly rare, or at least, this is the case for the Colombian Pacific. For example, there is only one related genus listed for Colombia (see Homolampas hastata -now accepted as Aerolampas hastata- in Cohen-Rengifo et al. 2009); hence, this report constitutes the first national record for the genus Lovenia and the second for Loveniidae.