Ophiacantha setosa ( Bruzelius, 1805 )

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 : 36

Ophiacantha setosa ( Bruzelius, 1805)

Reports for the Azores:

Ophiacantha setosa M̹ller & Troschel, 1842 —? Koehler 1898: 57–58, pl. 8, figs. 37–38; $ Nobre 1938: 74, fig. 34.2; Ophiacantha setosa ( Bruzelius, 1805) — $ Koehler 1906b: 291–292; Tortonese 1965: 218–220, fig. 102.

See: Tortonese (1965); Paterson (1985: 37–38, fig. 16).

Occurrence: Mediterranean Sea and East Atlantic, from the Bay of Biscay along West African coast as far as Angola ( Paterson 1985), including the archipelagos of the Azores ( Koehler 1906b), Canaries ( Bacallado et al. 1985) and Cape Verde ( Rochebrune 1881).

Depth: 5– 1,480 m ( Koukouras et al. 2007); AZO :?139– 1,257 m ( Koehler 1898, 1906b).

Habitat: abundant in detritic substrates and a frequent epibiont on gorgonians ( Tortonese 1965).

Remarks: the first report of Ophiacantha setosa from the Azores can be traced back to Koehler (1898). In the introduction and later in the discussion of the geographical distribution of this species (pages 32 and 58), Koehler remarked that he found this species in the Azores at a depth of 139 m, without giving any further details. However, Koehler (pp. 33, 57, 69) only listed a station sampled by Hirondelle located in the Bay of Biscay, at a depth of 135 m. Regardless, the same author (1906b) later identified a specimen belonging to O. setosa among the material collected by Talisman in the Azores (sta 127, 1883: 38°38’N, 28°20’46”W, 1,257 m), which appears to have been re-examined later by Nobre (1938).