Amphiura (Amphiura) grandisquama Lyman 1869

Amphiura (Amphiura) grandisquama Lyman, 1869 Reports for the Azores:

Amphiura longispina $ Koehler, 1896a: 211–212, 1898: 52–53, pl. 9, figs. 45–46;

Amphiura grandisquama Lyman, 1869 — $ Koehler 1907b: 301, 1909: 177–178; Koehler 1914b: 190–191; Mortensen 1927a: 209; Madsen 1970: 177–178, fig. 12; Paterson 1985: 87, fig. 33; García-Diez et al. 2005: 48.

Type locality: off Tennessee Reef (Florida Strait).

See: Lyman (1869: 334–337); Madsen (1970); Paterson (1985).

Occurrence: cosmopolitan, in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian Oceans and in the?Mediterranean Sea; in the west Atlantic from South Carolina to the Caribbean (Koehler 1914a), including Tristan da Cunha (Mortensen 1936); in the east Atlantic from Iceland to the Gulf of Guinea (Mortensen 1936), including the Azores (Koehler 1909), Madeira (Jesus & Abreu 1998), Canaries, Cape Verde (Koehler 1906b), Saint Helena (Mortensen 1933c), Meteor and Josephine seamounts (Bartsch 2008). The subspecies A. grandisquama natalensis Mortensen 1933b is restricted to southern Africa (Alva & Vadon 1989).

Depth: (?2)18– 2,870 m (Mortensen 1936, Cherbonnier & Sibuet 1972); AZO: 599–880 m (Koehler 1909).

Habitat: soft to hard substrates (Koehler 1909).

Larval stage: brooder (embryos are kept in the bursae until the juvenile stage is reached; Bartsch 2008).

Remarks: Koehler (1896a, 1898) described Amphiura longispina based on a single specimen collected by Hirondelle in the Azores (sta 242: 38°48’30”N, 27°58’46”W, 861 m). On the re-examination of A. grandisquama from the Caribbean, Koehler (1907b) confirmed both are conspecific. Additionally, the species Monamphiura apicula from the Mediterranean Sea (Tortonese 1965; Koukouras et al. 2007) has been considered conspecific with A. grandisquama by some authors (e.g., Madsen 1970; Paterson 1985; Bartsch 2008). If this is the case, the distribution range of the latter should be extended to the Mediterranean Sea and to depths as shallow as 2 m (Koukouras et al. 2007).