Phormosoma placenta placenta Thomson, 1872b

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 : 122-123

Phormosoma placenta placenta Thomson, 1872b

Reports for the Azores:

Phormosoma placenta Thomson, 1872 b— $ Mortensen 1927b: 25; Mortensen 1935: 125–135, figs. 80–82, pl. 1, figs. 1–5, pl. 2, figs. 1–19, pl. 74, figs. 1–6, 19; Marques 1980: 105; Benavides-Serrato et al. 2012: 53.

Type locality: about 100 miles to the north of the Butt of the Lewis, in Scottish waters (59°43’N, 7°40’W).

See: Thomson (1872b: 732–737, pl. 62, figs. 1–5, pl. 63, figs. 1–9, 9a); Mortensen (1935).

Occurrence: North Atlantic, in the Davis Strait ( Mortensen 1903) south to the Northeast coast of USA ( Koehler 1921a, H.L. Clark 1925) eastwards south of Iceland ( Mortensen 1903) to Gulf of Guinea ( Koehler 1909, Grieg 1932, Chesher 1966), including the Azores, Canary and Cape Verde archipelagos ( Koehler 1909, Mortensen 1927b). The subspecies P. placenta sigsbey Agassiz, 1880 and P. placenta africana Mortensen, 1934 are reported from the Caribbean and South African waters, respectively ( Mortensen 1935, Serafy & Fell 1985).

Depth: 215– 2,500 m ( Mortensen 1935); AZO : 1,257 m ( Mortensen 1927b).

Habitat: gregarious bottom-feeder ( Serafy & Fell 1985) on soft sediments (muddy sand to soft ooze; Gage et al. 1985).

Larval stage: lecithotrophic ( Emlet 1995).

Remarks: the record of Phormosoma placenta in the Azores is based on Mortensen (1927b) who identified this species among the material collected by Talisman (sta 127, 1883: 38°38’00”N, 28°20’46”W, 1,257 m).