Brissopsis lyrifera lyrifera ( Forbes, 1841 )

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 : 123

Brissopsis lyrifera lyrifera ( Forbes, 1841)

Reports for the Azores:

Brissopsis lyrifera ( Forbes, 1841) — $ Koehler 1895a: 225, 1898: 7, 24, 73; Grieg 1932: 43; Nobre 1938: 132–133, fig. 57; Pereira 1997: 335; Micael & Costa 2010: 323; Micael et al. 2012: 4; García-Diez et al. 2005: 51.

Type locality: Scotland, British Isles .

See: Forbes (1841: 187–189); Mortensen (1951b: 380–390, pl. 30, figs. 1–4, 7–13, pl. 32, figs. 15, 20, 22, pl. 57, fig. 15); Chesher (1968: 90–96, figs. 8, 18–19; pl. 21, figs. a–b, as Brissopsis lyrifera capensis ).

Occurrence: Mediterranean Sea and east Atlantic, from Iceland and Scandinavia ( Mortensen 1907) to NW Africa ( Mortensen 1927a, b, Grieg 1932), including the Azores ( Koehler 1898); the subspecies B. lyrifera capensis Mortensen 1907 was reported from South Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the Caribbean ( Chesher 1966, 1968).

Depth: 5– 2,250 m ( Mortensen 1951 b, Mecho et al. 2014); AZO: 130 m ( Koehler 1898).

Habitat: buried in sand, mud to detritic substrates ( Mortensen 1927a, Cherbonnier 1969).

Larval stage: planktotrophic ( Harvey et al. 1988).

Remarks: the only known material of Brissopsis lyrifera from the Azores is restricted to a single small specimen identified by Koehler (1895a, 1898) among the material collected by Hirondelle (sta 226: 38°31’19”N, 28°34’31”W) in the channel between Pico and Faial islands, at a depth of 130 m.