Benthodytes janthina $ Marenzeller 1892

Benthodytes janthina Marenzeller, 1892 Reports for the Azores:

Benthodytes janthina $ Marenzeller, 1892: 66, 1893: 10–11, pl. 1, fig. 3, pl. 2, fig. 4; Perrier 1902: 275; Mortensen 1927a: 373; García-Diez et al. 2005: 52.

Type locality: North of the Azores (41°40’41”N, 26°44’09”W).

See: Marenzeller (1893).

Occurrence: known only from the type specimen collected in the northern waters of the Azores.

Depth: 2,870 m (AZO; Marenzeller 1893).

Habitat: soft bottoms (clayish sand; Marenzeller 1893).

Remarks: Marenzeller (1892, 1893) described Benthodytes janthina, based on a single specimen collected by Hirondelle, roughly 160 miles north of Terceira Island. The specimen lacked complete information on important diagnostic characters, such as the ossicles that were broken and partially dissolved. Nevertheless, B. janthina was later recorded from several localities in the NE Atlantic, from Greenland (Heding 1942) to Cape Verde (Hérouard 1923). Hérouard (1902) attempted to complete Marenzeller’s initial description based on individuals collected by Princesse Alice, which included material dredge within Azorean waters (sta 673: 37°51’00”N, 26°53’45”W, 2,252 m). Hansen (1975) reviewed these reports and concluded that they resulted from confusion with other Benthodytes species, such as B. typica. As a result, B. janthina was again reduced to the type specimen. Furthermore, Hansen (1975) commented that due to the poor preservation state of the holotype it was not possible to review the species’ status and its affinities. On studying deep-sea material from the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (SW Ireland), Billett (1988) believed that both B. janthina and B. lingua Perrier, 1896b were junior synonyms of the Indo-Pacific B. sordida Théel, 1882, dismissing many of the diagnostic characters as individual variation or a result of the preservation process (e.g., shrinkage and retraction, loss of colour, absence of ossicles). Recently, Rogacheva et al. (2009) considered B. sordida to be conspecific with Indo-Pacific B. abyssicola Théel, 1882, and dismissed the Atlantic records as misidentifications. The matter whether Azorean B. janthina is conspecific with other Atlantic Benthodytes species (B. lingua ?) or indeed B. abyssicola, is still pending on future revisions of the genus.