Palaeotropus josephinae Lovén, 1871

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 : 125

Palaeotropus josephinae Lovén, 1871

Reports for the Azores:

Palaeotropus josephinae $ Lovén, 1874: 17–18 , pl. 12, fig. 105, pl. 13, figs. 108–113, pl. 32, fig. 200; Agassiz 1881: 218; H.L. Clark 1917: 152–153; Mortensen 1927a: 322, 1950: 294–298, figs. 205, 206a, 207b, pl. 25, figs. 14, 19, 21–22, 30–33; García-Diez et al. 2005: 51; Mironov 2006: 115–117, figs. 6–7;

Palaeotropus Hirondellei $ Koehler, 1895a: 226–227, 1895b: 230–231, 1898: 29–30, pl. 5, figs. 12–14, pl. 6, figs. 26–27, pl. 9, fig. 47, 1909: 244–245, pl. 30, figs. 18–23, pl. 31, figs. 4–5, 1921a: 3.

Type locality: Azores (Vila Franca, S„o Miguel) .

See: Lovén (1874); Mortensen (1950); Mironov (2006).

Occurrence: East Atlantic, known from the Bay of Biscay, the Azores Archipelago ( Koehler 1909), Hyeres and tropic NE Atlantic seamounts ( Mironov 2006); also reported from a seamount located north of St. Helena (11°37’S, 5°12’W; Mironov 2006).

Depth: 300– 1,600 m ( AZO: 500– 1,600 m; Koehler 1909, Mironov 2006).

Habitat: soft to hard bottoms (mud, sand, gravel and rock; Koehler 1898, 1909).

Larval stage: planktotrophic ( Mortensen 1950).

Remarks: Lovén (1871, 1874) described the deep-water species Palaeotropus josephinae based on material collected by Josephine expedition near Vila Franca do Campo, in the south of S„o Miguel Island. Throughout the historical bibliography this species is a constant presence in deep water tows in the Azorean deep waters. For example, Koehler (1895a, 1898) described a new species Palaeotropus hirondellei based on material collected in the Azores by Hirondelle (sta 102: 38°23'45"N, 28°31'16"W, 927 m). H.L. Clark (1917) argued that Koehler overlooked Palaeotropus josephinae described by Lovén from the same area, that both species portrayed animals of different sizes, and synonymized the two species, an opinion shared by later authors (e.g., Mortensen 1950; Mironov 2006).