Mesothuria maroccana Perrier, 1898

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 : 154

Mesothuria maroccana Perrier, 1898

Reports for the Azores:

Mesothuria murrayi grandipes $ Hérouard, 1923: 15–17 , pl. 4, figs. 7–9;

Mesothuria maroccana Perrier, 1898 — Grieg 1932: 4, pl. 1, fig. 1; $ Gebruk 2008: 50, 51; Gebruk et al. 2012: 301–303, figs. 9A, B, 10; Rogacheva et al. 2013: 592, fig. 17D.

Type locality: Morocco (32°04’00”N, 10°42’46”W) .

See: Perrier (1902: 312–317, pl. 16, figs. 32–35); Deichmann (1930: 97–98, pl. 7, figs. 2–7); Gebruk et al. (2012); Rogacheva et al. (2013).

Occurrence: North Atlantic, from off Virginia, south to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, eastwards from the area between Greenland and Iceland to the Gulf of Gibraltar, including the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from the Charlie- Gibbs Fracture Zone to the Azores ( Gebruk 2008, Gebruk et al. 2012).

Depth: 700– 3,465 m ( Gebruk 2008, Gebruk et al. 2012); AZO: 1,740(?1,600)– 2,968 m ( Hérouard, 1923, Gebruk 2008).

Habitat: muddy sand, mud to hard substrates ( Hérouard 1923; Rogacheva et al. 2013).

Remarks: Hérouard (1923) assigned material collected in Azorean waters (Princesse-Alice: sta 536: 37°54’00”N, 24°43’15”W, 2178 m; Hirondelle II: sta 3150: 38°01’N, 25°21’W, 1,740 m) to ‘ Mesothuria murrayi Théel var. grandipes ’. On revising Hérouard’s variety, Deichmann (1930) dismissed many of the diagnostic characters selected by the previous author as intraspecific or ontogenic variation. Deichmann believed that the Atlantic variety ‘ grandipes ’ was identical with Perrier’s M. maroccana . Later authors such as Hansen (1956) and Gebruk et al. (2012) agreed with Deichmann. Nevertheless, these authors stated that a future revision was essential given the limited present knowledge of these species’ natural variability. Additionally, Gebruk (2008) identified the M. maroccana among the material taken in northern Azorean waters, further substantiating the presence of this species in the Azorean deep waters.