Paragonaster subtilis ( Perrier, 1881 )

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 : 83

Paragonaster subtilis ( Perrier, 1881)

Reports for the Azores:

Pentagonaster elongatus Perrier, 1885 c— $ Perrier 1885c: 38; Goniopecten subtilis Perrier, 1881 — $ Perrier 1885c: 41; Paragonaster elongatus ( Perrier, 1885c) — $ Perrier 1894: 362–363 pl. 21, fig. 3, pl. 24, fig. 4; Verrill 1899: 196; Paragonaster subtilis ( Perrier, 1881) — $ Perrier 1894: 358–362 pl. 23, fig. 5, pl. 24, fig. 3; $ Koehler 1909: 86–87, pl. 4, fig. 2; Mortensen 1927a: 79; $ Halpern 1972: 374–378, figs. 5–6; Downey 1973: 57, pl. 22, figs. A, B; Sibuet 1975: 108; Gage et al. 1983: 280; A.M. Clark & Downey 1992: 256–257, pl. 62, figs. C, D; García-Diez et al. 2005: 47; $ Dilman 2008: 140, 2014: 33.

Type locality: Gulf of Mexico (24°33’N, 84°23’W) .

See: Halpern (1972); A.M. Clark & Downey (1992).

Occurrence: Atlantic, in the west from off New York, south to the Gulf of Mexico ( Halpern 1972), in the east from the Rockall Trough ( Gage et al. 1983) to the Gulf of Guinea ( Sibuet 1975), including the Azores and Cape Verde archipelagos ( Koehler 1909).

Depth: 1,058 –4,825 m ( Halpern 1972); AZO: 2,954 –4,261 m ( Koehler 1909, Dilman 2008).

Habitat: soft substrates (ooze; Gage et al. 1983).

Larval stage: lecithotrophic ( McEdward & Miner 2001).

Remarks: Paragonaster subtilis is a highly variably species and was described in the literature under several names (see A.M. Clark & Downey 1992). For example, Perrier (1885c, 1894) described Paragonaster elongatus (= Pentagonaster elongatus ) based on material collected by Talisman at the same station in the Azores (sta 131, 1883: 38°38’00”N, 25°05’46”W, 2,995 m) where the same author recorded also P. subtilis . At the time, Perrier remarked that the former might represent just a variety of later species. Halpern (1972) re-examined the type material including that of P. elongatus from the Azores and synonymized the two species.