Pteraster personatus Sladen 1891

Pteraster personatus Sladen, 1891 Reports for the Azores:

Pteraster reductus Koehler 1907 a— $ Koehler 1909: 96–97, pl. 3, figs. 8–9, pl. 20, fig. 10; Mortensen 1927a: 102; Grieg 1932: 28–29, pl. 5, figs. 6–7; Cherbonnier & Sibuet 1972: 380; Gage et al. 1983: 282;

Pteraster personatus Sladen, 1891 — Downey 1973: 76–77, pl. 32, figs. C–D; A.M. Clark & Downey 1992: 334, pl. 82, figs. A–B; García-Diez et al. 2005: 48; Benavides-Serrato et al. 2011: 187; Dilman 2014: 36.

Type locality: Porcupine Seabight, SW of Ireland (51°01’N, 11°50’W).

See: Downey (1973); A.M. Clark & Downey (1992); Benavides-Serrato et al. (2011).

Occurrence: North Atlantic, in the west reported from Labrador (Cherbonnier & Sibuet 1972) and the Gulf of Mexico (Downey 1973), in the east recorded from the Rockall Trough (Cherbonnier & Sibuet 1972) and SW of Ireland (Sladen 1881) to? Mauritania (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992), including the Azores (Koehler 1909).

Depth: 480– 2,870 m (Dilman 2014); AZO: 1,846 –2,870 m (Koehler 1909).

Habitat: soft substrates, mud to muddy sand (Koehler 1909).

Remarks: Koehler (1909) described a new species Pteraster reductus based on small poorly preserved specimens collected by Princesse Alice at several stations located within the Azores waters. Later, Downey (1973) argued that P. reductus represents juveniles of P. personatus dismissing the diagnosing differences selected by Koehler as size-dependent. No other material is known from the archipelago.