Achelia sawayai Marcus, 1940

(Fig. 2A)

Achelia sawayai Marcus, 1940: 81–86, figs. 10 A–F, 17; Müller, 1989: 124, fig. 40; Montoya-Bravo et al., 2009: 10–11, figs.1– 4.

Type locality — Bay of Saints and Itanhaen (53 km south from Santos), Brazil

Material examined. Bissau-0810: BS191, 2♀; BS194, 1♀; BS195, 1 juvenile.

Remarks. Our material agrees with the original description and figures of the female holotype provided by Marcus (1940). The juvenile is still chelate (Fig 2A) but the characteristics of the species are clearly visible.

Habitat. This species has been collected from bottoms with foraminifera (Stock 1966), dead corals (Müller 1989), sand (Stock 1989) and on rocky bottoms with algae (Montoya-Bravo, et al. 2009). Its bathymetric distribution extends from 0 to 115 m depth, with an isolated record at 157 m; nevertheless, this last record was considered as a possible contamination by shallow fouling from a ship hull (Sabroux et al., 2022). Our material has been collected between 23 and 29 m.

Geographical distribution. This species shows a circumtropical distribution, recorded in the West and East Atlantic, Eastern Mediterranean, Indian, and Pacific Oceans (Sabroux et al. 2022). In Northwest Africa it was reported from Mauritania (Sabroux et al. 2022), Cabo Verde (Fage & Stock 1966; Stock 1990), Guinea (Stock 1966), and the Republic of the Congo (Fage 1949). Our specimens were collected from Guinea-Bissau. Sabroux et al. (2022) reported that DNA barcoding studies imply at least three cryptic species for Achelia sawayai . Future research may confirm that many A. sawayai records were incorrectly assigned to this species, which would modify its current geographical distribution.