Ophiacantha mesembria H. L. Clark 1915

• Main Authors: Madeira, Patrícia, Kroh, Andreas, Cordeiro, Ricardo, De, António M., Martins, Frias, Ávila, Sérgio P.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Echinodermata; Ophiuroidea; Ophiurida; Ophiacanthidae; Ophiacantha; Ophiacantha mesembria; Northwest Atlantic
• Online Access: https://zenodo.org/record/5583101; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5583101

Ophiacantha mesembria H.L. Clark, 1915 Reports for the Azores: Ophiacantha pentagona armata $ Koehler, 1898: 55–56; Ophiacantha mesembria H.L. Clark, 1915 — Koehler 1922: 60–61; Mortensen 1927a: 188. Type locality: off Santa Cruz (Virgin Islands, Caribbean). See: H.L. Clark (1915: 201–202); Benavides-Serrato et al. (2011: 248–249). Occurrence: Northwest Atlantic, known from the Caribbean islands and Gulf of Mexico (Benavides-Serrato et al. 2011) eastwards to the Azores (Koehler 1922) and?Madeira (Jesus & Abreu 1998). Depth: 256– 2,870 m (H.L. Clark 1915, Koeheler 1898); AZO: 2,870 m (Koeheler 1898). Habitat: soft sediments (clayish sand; Koehler 1898). Remarks: Koehler (1898) examined two specimens collected by Hirondelle in Azorean waters, which he placed in a variety armata of O. pentagona, a species described from the Pacific Ocean. Later, Koehler (1922) changed his previous identification of the Hirondelle material, and placed them under the Caribbean O. mesembria, extending its geographical distribution to the Mid-Atlantic and its vertical distribution from 1,143 m to 2,870 m. This species may also occur at Madeira Archipelago (Jesus & Abreu 1998, as Ophiacantha cf. mesembria). Published as part of Madeira, Patrícia, Kroh, Andreas, Cordeiro, Ricardo, De, António M., Martins, Frias & Ávila, Sérgio P., 2019, The Echinoderm Fauna of the Azores (NE Atlantic Ocean), pp. 1-231 in Zootaxa 4639 (1) on page 35, DOI:10.11646/zootaxa.4639.1, http://zenodo.org/record/3342161