Henricia oculata ? (Pennant 1777

Henricia oculata ? (Pennant, 1777) Reports for the Azores:

Cribrella oculata (Linck) Forbes—? $ Perrier 1896a: 39;

Cribrella oculata, (Linck, 1733) — Koehler 1909: 102–103;

non Henricia sanguinolenta (M̹ller, 1776)— Koehler 1921b: 31, fig. 23, 1924: 126–127; Mortensen 1927a: 118–121; Nobre 1938: 39–40, fig. 14;

Henricia oculata (Pennant, 1777) — García-Diez et al. 2005: 47; Micael & Costa 2010: 322; Micael et al. 2012: 5–6.

Type locality: Anglesey, N. Wales (British Isles).

See: Madsen (1987: 254–257, figs. 3c, 44–45); A.M. Clark & Downey (1992: 393–394, figs. 60q, r, pl. 93, fig. E, pl. 95, figs. F–G).

Occurrence: Northeast Atlantic, known with certainty from the Shetland Islands south to Portugal (Madsen 1987); possibly extending west to Nova Scotia and New England north of Cape Cod (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992) and to the Azores (Perrier 1896a).

Depth: 0–? 180 m (A.M. Clark & Downey 1992);? AZO: 1,266 –1,557 m (Perrier 1896a).

Habitat: hard substrates to shell gravel, found as well in sublittoral habitats with considerable hydrodynamics, from kelp forests, tidal streams and on vertical cliffs (Picton 1993).

Larval stage: lecithotrophic (Brun 1978).

Remarks: the highly polymorphic nature of Henricia (= Cribrella) species makes this genus as whole particularly difficult with a problematic historical synonymy (Madsen 1987; A.M. Clark & Downey 1992; Sneli 1999). For example, the species names Henricia oculata (Pennant, 1777) and H. sanguinolenta (M̹ller, 1776) are intermingled and considered synonymous by the time the great oceanographic expeditions reached the Azores Archipelago. In the report of the asteroids collected by Hirondelle, Perrier (1896a) identified material under the name ‘ Cribrella oculata (Linck) Forbes’ collected at four stations, the first located east of Newfoundland at about 155 m and the remaining three within the Azorean waters between 1,266 –1,557 m. Koehler (1909) in his report on the echinoderms collected by Princesse Alice also listed the name ‘ Cribrella oculata, (Linck) ’ for specimens from the British Isles and Scandinavia. However, Koehler added also the name ‘ Cribrella sanguinolenta (M̹ller)’, remarking that these species were synonymous with C. oculata being the oldest. Later, however, the majority of the authors (e.g., Koehler 1921b; Mortensen 1927a; Nobre 1938) adopted the name H. sanguinolenta, as Linck’s name did not follow the binominal rules (Madsen 1987). It was only in the late 1970’s that Pennant’s Henricia oculata was again accepted as a distinct species (Madsen 1987). As a consequence, the true geographical and bathymetric range of H. oculata is still uncertain. The name as presented by Perrier is generally accepted under the synonymy of this species (e.g., Madsen 1987; A.M. Clark & Downey 1992). On the other hand, the Azorean material was retrieved from depths that appear far too deep for H. oculata or even for H. sanguinolenta, both known from waters no deeper than 200 m. The matter is still pending.