Acanthocope galatheae Wolff 1962

Acanthocope galatheae Wolff, 1962

Acanthocope galatheae Wolff, 1962: 113, figs 63–65; Malyutina, 1999: 323, fig. 3; Schmid, Brenke & Wägele, 2002: 87, fig. 1 a–d, and electr. suppl. 1: 2, figs 1–11.

Material examined: 9 Ψ, ANDEEP stn. 135–S, 65°59.97'S, 43°00.82'W, 4678 m, 10 March 2002, RV Polarstern (ZMH K–40721); 1 juv, ANDEEP stn. 136–S, 64°01.54'S 39°06.88'W, 4747 m, 12 January 2002, RV Polarstern (ZMH K–40722).

Remarks on the distribution: The species was described by Wolff from the abyssal east Pacific (Gulf of Panama). Malyutina (1999) recorded a single specimen from the south Atlantic, west of the Walvis Ridge with the same morphological characters and provisionally identified it as A. galatheae (?), as the huge distance between the two localities created some uncertainty that these were the one species. Schmid et al. (2002) redescribed the species on the basis of a large collection of specimens from the Angola Basin near the locality of Malyutina’s (1999) record. We have compared specimens from the Weddell Sea to those specimens from the Angola Basin and the holotype of A. galatheae and did not find any morphological differences. We consider that all of these specimens belong to the same species A. galatheae. The new material of this species from the Southern Ocean (northwest Weddell Sea) extends its distribution.