Ophiotoma coriacea? Lyman, 1883

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 : 41

Ophiotoma coriacea? Lyman, 1883

Reports for the Azores:

non Ophiopora bartletti ( Lyman, 1883) —? $ Koehler 1909: 195 [misidentification]; García-Diez et al. 2005: 49 [based on Koehler 1909];

Ophiotoma coriacea Lyman, 1883 — Mortensen 1927a: 187–188, fig. 104; Paterson 1985: 57, fig. 23; Harvey et al. 1988: 169–170; Smirnov et al. 2014: 197.

Type locality: off Cape Cod , USA (41°24’45”N, 65°35’30”W) .

See: Lyman (1883: 268–269, pl. 2, figs. 1–3); Mortensen (1933a: 37–39); Paterson (1985); Martynov (2010: 97–103, figs. 66F–H).

Occurrence: North Atlantic; from off Cape Cod eastward to Iceland, south to the Bay of Biscay and?Azores ( Paterson 1985).

Depth: 1,605 –4,106 m ( Paterson 1985, Harvey et al. 1988); AZO:? 3,465 m ( Koehler 1909).

Habitat: soft bottoms, from muddy sand to ooze ( Koehler 1909, Farran 1913).

Remarks: Koehler (1909) reported the Caribbean species Ophiotoma bartletti (= Ophiopora bartletti ) from the Azores, based on a single incomplete and deformed specimen, collected by Princesse Alice (sta 745: 38°05’00”N, 23°50’15”W) at a depth of 3,465 m, much deeper than what is believed to be the normal depth for the Caribbean species. H.L. Clark (1915) considered that the Caribbean species O. bartletti was conspecific with the East Atlantic O. coriacea , an opinion that subsequent authors did not agree with (e.g., Koehler 1922; Mortensen 1933a). Paterson (1985) argued that since all that remains of the type material of the former species were fragments of the arms the synonymy could not be confirmed. We agree with Paterson (1985) that O. bartletti is restricted to the Caribbean and tentatively refer Koehler’s report of O. bartletti to the temperate species O. coriacea (see also Farran 1913), despite the fact that O. coriacea as such has not been reported from the Azores so far. Inclusion of this species in the Azorean echinoderm fauna should, nevertheless, be considered with caution, considering the poor state of the only known specimen recovered from the Azorean deep waters.