Hoplaster spinosus Perrier, in Milne-Edwards, 1882

Madeira, Patrícia, Kroh, Andreas, Cordeiro, Ricardo, De, António M., Martins, Frias & Ávila, Sérgio P., 2019, The Echinoderm Fauna of the Azores (NE Atlantic Ocean), Zootaxa 4639 (1), pp. 1-231 : 91

Hoplaster spinosus Perrier, in Milne-Edwards, 1882

Reports for the Azores:

Pentagonaster lepidus $ Sladen, 1889: 275–277 , pl. 57, figs. 1–4; Perrier 1894: 390; Mortensen 1927a: 77;

Hoplaster spinosus Perrier, in Milne-Edwards, 1882 — $ Perrier 1894: 324–325, pl. 14, fig. 2; Verrill 1899: 197; Gage et al. 1983: 278; $ A.M. Clark & Downey 1992: 151–152, pl. 36, figs. E, F; Dilman 2014: 31–32;

Hoplaster lepidus ( Sladen, 1889) — Verrill 1899: 198.

Type locality: near the Porcupine Seabight (49°47’50”N, 12°41’46”W), SW Ireland .

See: Perrier (in Milne-Edwards 1882: 48; 1894); A.M. Clark & Downey (1992).

Occurrence: East Atlantic, from the Rockall Trough ( Gage et al. 1983) and the Porcupine Seabight ( Mortensen 1927a) to off Morocco, including the Azores (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992); reported also south off Cape Town, South Africa (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992).

Depth: 1,795 –3,310 m (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992); AZO: 1,829 –2,595 m ( Sladen 1889, Perrier 1894).

Habitat: soft substrates, sand with pumice stones, ooze or mud (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992).

Remarks: Sladen (1889) described a new species, Pentagonaster lepidus based on material collected by H.M.S. Challenger in the Azores (sta 78: 37°24’N, 25°13’W, 1,829 m). However, Sladen remarked that this species was an immature form of what could prove to be conspecific to any of the Pentagonaster species described by Perrier (1885c) from the same area. Perrier (1894) added material collected by Talisman in the Azores (sta 131: 38°38’N, 27°26’W, 2,595 m) to the type material of Hoplaster spinosus collected by Travailleur in Irish waters. Though, Perrier acknowledge Sladen’ species, only after Verrill (1899) P. lepidus was synonymized with H. spinosus , a decision followed by subsequent authors (e.g., Gage et al. 1983; A.M. Clark & Downey 1992).