Aspidosiphon muelleri Diesing

Cutler, Edward B., Schulze, Anja & Dean, Harlan K., 2004, Zealand species, Zootaxa 525, pp. 1-19 : 14

Aspidosiphon muelleri Diesing

Aspidosiphon muelleri Diesing, 1851: 68 .

Type locality: Mediterranean Sea.

Remarks: The single representative of this species was removed from a piece of calcareous polychaete tube and is only 5 mm long. The anal shield is not dark but shows the square and rectangular units divided by grooves typical for this species. The caudal shield with radiating grooves is clearly developed and many rings of hooks can be seen.

Distribution: Common in the northeastern Atlantic from Norway to West Africa (48– 10° N). It extends through the Mediterranean into the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden along the coast of East Africa to Madagascar and South Africa. Also recorded from Sri Lanka, and there are sparse reports from central Japan through Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and down to Australia, New Guinea, and the Kermadec Islands. It is not found in most of the Pacific Ocean; one record from Juan Fernandez Island off Chile and one from southern Brazil are the only reports from near the American continents. The species inhabits shelf depths (5–400 m) throughout most of its range, but there are a few as deep as 2900 m. It is most often found in discarded mollusc shells. Some from shallow, warm water live in the bases of solitary corals that have overgrown small gastropods, forming a commensal relationship. This is a new record for New Zealand, but only a modest extension of its known range.