Freyella elegans

Freyella elegans (Verrill, 1884) Reports for the Azores:

Freyella spinosa Perrier, 1894 — Grieg 1932: 31; $ Cherbonnier & Sibuet 1972: 385; Gage et al. 1983: 285;.

Freyella elegans (Verrill, 1884) — $ Dilman 2008: 148; Dilman 2013: 584, 2014: 39.

Type locality: off New England.

See: Downey (1986: 43–46, fig. 22); A.M. Clark & Downey (1992: 484–485, fig. 69f, pl. 113, figs. A, B).

Occurrence: Atlantic, from North Carolina northwards to Greenland (Downey 1986) and eastwards to Europe (Cherbonnier & Sibuet 1972), including the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (Gage et al. 1983), southwards along West Africa to Namibia (Sibuet 1975), including the Mid-Atlantic Azorean waters (Dilman 2008).

Depth: 1,600–4,849 m (AZO: 2,063–3,050 m; Dilman 2008).

Habitat: suspension feeder (copepods, crustacean remains, foraminiferans; Howell et al. 2003) on soft bottoms (Perrier 1894) or attached to the rock surface and dead gorgonians (Tyler & Zibrowius 1992).

Larval stage: lecithotrophic (McEdward & Miner 2001).

Remarks: Freyella elegans is a highly variable species, widely distributed throughout the Atlantic deep waters. Grieg (1932) placed the Azores as the western geographical limit known at the time for F. spinosa, a form now known to be conspecific with F. elegans (see Downey 1986). At the time, no material of either species was reported from Azorean waters but between the archipelago and the European continental shores by Perrier (1894, as Freyella spinosa var. abyssicola). Later, Cherbonnier & Sibuet (1972, as Freyella spinosa) identified two specimens collected within the Azorean waters (Jean Charcot, Noratlante cruise, sta P65B10: 36°58’02”N, 26°20’W, 2,871 m). Recently, Dilman (2008) identified material belonging to this species in the northern waters of the Azores, substantiating the presence of F. elegans in the archipelago.