Stereocidaris ingolfiana ? Mortensen 1903

Stereocidaris ingolfiana ? Mortensen, 1903 Reports for the Azores:

Stereocidaris ingolfiana Mortensen, 1903 —? $ Pérès 1992: 254, 258.

Type locality: Denmark Strait.

See: Mortensen (1903: 38–41, pl. 6, figs. 1–5, pl. 8, figs. 4, 10–11, 16, 19–21, 23, 26, 28, 30, 36, pl. 11, figs. 12, 16–17, 23, 28, 30, 32–33; 1928: 267–268, pl. 27, figs. 1–3, pl. 70, fig. 6).

Occurrence: North Atlantic, from the Denmark Strait south to the Caribbean in the west and to Cape Verde in the east (Mortensen 1928).

Depth: 300– 1,745 m (Mortensen 1928);? AZO: 2,050 –3,300 m (Pérès 1992).

Habitat: soft sediments (Koehler 1909).

Larval stage: lecithotrophic (Emlet 1995).

Remarks: Pérès (1992) claimed to have observed Stereocidaris ingolfiana during a dive made by the bathyscaphe Archimède north of S„o Miguel Island (2,050 m depth) and east of Santa Maria Island (3,150 –3,300 m depth). No specimen was collected and the identification seems to have rested solely on the long size of the spines of the observed animals. Pérès observations could represent an intermediary record between the east and West Atlantic populations, though S. ingolfiana known depth range is slightly shallower than the depth reported by this author. In the other hand, Cidaris cidaris is the only cidaroid confirmed species to occur in the archipelago with abundant documented material (see above). At macroscopic level these two species are almost identical, and in many instances the diagnose rests on the observation of pedicellaria (see Mortensen 1927a, 1928). Thus, until material belonging to S. ingolfiana is documented in the archipelago, Pérès observation must be placed as a dubious record (see also remarks under Histocidaris purpurata).