Ophiacantha crassidens 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 : 34

Ophiacantha crassidens Verrill, 1885a

Reports for the Azores:

Ophiacantha crassidens Verrill, 1885 a— $ Koehler 1909: 185–186, pl. 26, figs. 9–11; Farran 1913: 42–43, figs. 9c, 14; Mortensen 1927a: 192–193, fig. 106; Grieg 1932: 38; $ Paterson 1985: 40–41, fig. 17; García-Diez et al. 2005: 49; $ St̂hr & Segonzac 2005: 386; Smirnov et al. 2014: 194;

Ophiacantha decipiens $ Koehler, 1906a: 22–23 , pl. 2, figs. 26–27, 1906b: 283–284, pl. 20, figs. 31–32; Mortensen 1927a: 188; Nobre 1938: 73.

Type locality: off Cape Hatteras , USA .

See: Verrill (1885a: 152–153); Paterson (1985).

Occurrence: North Atlantic; it is known from west of Cape Hatteras and off Virginia in the West Atlantic and from the British waters to south of the Azores in the East Atlantic ( Paterson 1985).

Depth: 970– 3,120 m ( Smirnov et al. 2014); AZO: 1,095 –2,200 m ( Koehler 1909, St̂hr & Segonzac 2005).

Habitat: soft sediments, sand to mud ( Koehler 1909; Grieg 1932).

Remarks: Koehler (1906a, b) described Ophiacantha decipiens from a specimen collected by Talisman in the Azores (sta 127, 1883: 38°38’N, 28°20’46”W, 1,257 m). Koehler (1906a) believed that this species was a close ally of O. smitti Ljungman, 1872 , a species reported from the archipelago by St̂hr & Segonzac (2005). Koehler (1909) also reported O. crassidens from the Azores, based on material collected by Princesse Alice (sta 703: 39°21’20”N, 31°05’45”W, 1,360 m; sta 1344: 38°45’30”N, 28°07’45”W, 1,095 m). Later, Paterson (1985) compared the type material of O. decipiens with specimens belonging to O. crassidens and found them to be conspecific. More recently, St̂hr & Segonzac (2005) reported an animal belonging to this species from Mount Saldanha, in the southwesternmost waters of the Azores (SEAHMA–1, sta PL 181–3: 36°33’38”N, 33°24’49”W, 2,200 m).