Gracilechinus elegans (Düben & Koren, 1846 )

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 : 172

Erroneous— Gracilechinus elegans (Düben & Koren, 1846)

Reports for the Azores:

Echinus elegans ( D̹ben & Koren, 1846)— Mortensen 1927a: 303–304, fig. 139, 1943a: 61–65, fig. 19, pl. 12, figs. 1–8, pl. 13, fig. 1, pl. 14, figs. 1–6; Nobre 1938: 116–117; Gage et al. 1985: 185; Mironov 2006: 110; Micael & Costa 2010: 323; Micael et al. 2012: 4.

Type locality: Bergen , Norway .

See: D̹ben & Koren (1844: 272–274, pl. 10, figs. 40–42, as Echinus elegans ); Mortensen (1943a); Mironov (2006).

Occurrence: Mediterranean Sea and Northeast Atlantic ( Mecho et al. 2014); from Iceland and Scandinavia as far south as Cape Spartel, in the North African coast ( Mortensen 1903, 1927a, b); also reported from the Antialtair Seamount ( Mironov 2006).

Depth: 50– 1,710 m ( Mironov 2006).

Habitat: soft sediment; bioeroder (deep-water corals; Stevenson & Rocha 2012).

Larval stage: planktotrophic ( Emlet 1995).

Remarks: Mortensen (1927a) listed the Azores under the geographical range of this species. However, to our knowledge no material belonging to Gracilechinus elegans was ever recorded from the Azores. Mortensen report seems to be a result of a mistake, which was repeated in later bibliography.