Colossendeis macerrima Wilson, 1881

Bamber, Roger N., 2002, Bathypelagic pycnogonids (Arthropoda, Pycnogonida) from the Discovery deep-sea cruises, Journal of Natural History 36 (6), pp. 715-727 : 723

Colossendeis macerrima Wilson, 1881

Bamber and Thurston, 1995: 148; ®gure 9D.

Material. One specimen, sample 9755#3; one specimen, sample 9781#1; one specimen, sample 10378#25; one specimen, sample 10378#26. Depth range (trawl depths) of this material, (1000)± 1525 m.

This species is commonly recorded in benthic samples (see Bamber and Thurston, 1995), although Mauchline (1984) recorded a single, damaged specimen from a bathypelagic sample in the Rockall Trough. The present material is all of small individuals (but apparently with fully developed ovigers), which have proboscides upturned.

The depth range of benthic material in the north-eastern Atlantic is 700±2000 m. The present ®nding of bathypelagic individuals, from the Porcupine Sea Bight and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, helps account for the wide distribution of this species, known from the north and south Atlantic, Paci®c, Indian and Antarctic Oceans.