Astropecten bispinosus

Erroneous— Astropecten bispinosus (Otto, 1823) Reports for the Azores:

Astropecten bispinosus (Otto, 1823) — Ludwig 1897: 16–31, pl. 2, fig. 6, pl. 6, fig. 6; Koehler 1921b: 46–47, fig. 33, 1924: 191–192; Mortensen 1927a: 56; Parenzan 1934: 211–216, fig. 7; Nobre 1938: 51–52, figs. 23, 24; Madsen 1950: 181–182; Tortonese 1965: 140–141, fig. 62; Micael & Costa 2010: 322; Micael et al. 2012: 5.

Type locality: Mediterranean Sea.

See: Koehler (1921b); Tortonese (1965).

Occurrence: Mediterranean Sea, reported elsewhere in the Portuguese continental shores (Northeast Atlantic; Koehler 1921 a, Nobre 1938).

Depth: shallow waters (Koehler 1921a).

Habitat: sandy bottoms and Zostera prairies (Koehler 1921a).

Remarks: the first report of Astropecten bispinosus in the Azores appears in Ludwig (1897). This author believed that A. platyacanthus was just a variation of A. bispinosus, and in his review of the Mediterranean sea stars, listed Barrois (1888) ’s record in the synonymy list of later species. This caused subsequent authors, such as Koehler (1921b), to include the Azores in this species geographical range without acknowledging the synonymy or the reexamination of Barrois (1888) ’s material. The debate whether A. platyacanthus is a variety of A. bispinosus seems to have ended with the publication of Zulliger & Lessios (2010) as they are now considered as two valid species (Mah 2017). Nevertheless, A.M. Clark & Downey (1992) considered both species to be endemic to the Mediterranean waters, believing that all the reports from the Atlantic were based on misidentifications or doubtful locality data. The lack of documented material from the Azorean waters appears to support these authors, and thus we consider the Azorean reports as erroneous.