Cheiraster (Cheiraster) sepitus ( Verrill, 1885a )

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 : 72

Cheiraster (Cheiraster) sepitus ( Verrill, 1885a)

Reports for the Azores:

Pontaster venustus $ Sladen, 1889: 52–55 , pl. 8, figs. 5, 6, pl. 12, figs. 5, 6; $ Perrier 1894: 287–288, 1896a: 47; $ Koehler 1909: 14–15, pl. 1, fig. 13;

Pectinaster (Pontaster) venustus Sladen, 1889 — $ Koehler 1921a: 2;

Cheiraster (Cheiraster) sepitus ( Verrill, 1885a) — $ A.M. Clark 1981: 117–118, figs. 4i–r, 5c; A.M. Clark & Downey 1992: 129–130, figs. 22d–e, 23b, pl. 31, figs. D–H; Benavides-Serrato et al. 2011: 142;

Cheiraster sepitus ( Verrill, 1885) — Harvey et al. 1988: 160–161; García-Diez et al. 2005: 47.

Type locality: S of Cape Sable , Nova Scotia, USA .

See: A.M. Clark (1981); A.M. Clark & Downey (1992); Benavides–Serrato et al. (2011).

Occurrence: North Atlantic, from Nova Scotia south to the Caribbean (A.M. Clark 1981), east from west of Iceland (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992) and the Rockall Trough ( Harvey et al. 1988) southwards to the Cape Verde area including the Azores ( Koehler 1909).

Depth: 304– 3,706 m ( Benavides–Serrato et al. 2011), mostly 1,000 –2,000 m (A.M. Clark 1981); AZO: 1,165 – 3,706 m ( Sladen 1889).

Habitat: soft bottoms, muddy sand to ooze ( Koehler 1909).

Remarks: the inaccurate original description of the type material by Verrill (1885a) and subsequent multiplicity of synonymies resulted in an unclear geographical and bathymetric range for Cheiraster sepitus (A.M. Clark 1981; A.M. Clark & Downey 1992).