Sperosoma grimaldii Koehler, 1897b

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 : 120-121

Sperosoma grimaldii Koehler, 1897b

Reports for the Azores:

Sperosoma grimaldii $ Koehler, 1897b: 302–307, 1898: 16–21 , pl. 2, fig. 2, pl. 3, figs. 3, 4, pl. 4, fig. 8, pl. 9, fig. 48, 1909: 218–217; $ Mortensen 1903: 75–78, pl. 4, figs. 3–5, pl. 11, fig. 9. pl. 12, fig. 16, pl. 13, figs. 12, 23, pl. 14, figs. 2, 4, 4a, 6, 11, 31, 33, 1927b: 27; Mortensen 1927a: 287–288, figs. 156.3, 163, 1935: 184–187, figs. 107–108, pl. 8, figs. 1–2; Grieg 1932: 40–41; Marques 1980: 105; Gage et al. 1985: 181; García-Diez et al. 2005: 50; Mironov 2006: 103–104; $ Mironov 2008: 4, tab. 1; Mironov 2014: 121.

Type locality: Azores .

See: Koehler (1897b); Mortensen (1903).

Occurrence: Northeast Atlantic, from south of Iceland and Faroe south to the Gulf of Guinea ( Mortensen 1927a, b, Chesher 1966), including the Azores, Canaries and Cape Verde archipelagos ( Koehler 1909), and the Great Meteor seamount ( Mironov 2006).

Depth: 235– 2,910 m ( Mortensen 1927 b, Mironov 2006); AZO: 1,213 –2,107 m ( Koehler 1898, Mironov 2008).

Habitat: sand, mud to ooze ( Koehler 1909, Gage et al. 1985).

Larval stage: lecithotrophic. ( Emlet 1995).

Remarks: Koehler (1897b, 1898) described a new species of echinothuroid, Sperosoma grimaldii based on material collected in Azorean deep waters by Hirondelle and Princesse Alice. Until recently, the presence of this species in the archipelago has been restricted to the type material and to the historical reports by this author. Mironov (2008) published a table mentioning this echinoid collected by G.O. Sars ( MAR–ECO expedition), which included stations located in the northern-most waters of the Azores.