Ophioglypha minuta Lyman, 1878 —? $ Koehler 1896b: 242, 1909: 152–153 [possible misidentification];
Aspidophiura minuta (Lyman, 1878) — García-Diez et al. 2005: 49 [based on Koehler 1909].
Type locality: Between Greenland and Iceland (64°34’N, 31°12’W).
See: Fasmer (1930: 4–7, figs. 3–5); Vadon & Guille (1984: 593–595, figs. 1A–B, pl. 4, figs. 4–6); Paterson (1985: 140, fig. 53).
Occurrence: North Atlantic, between Greenland and Iceland south to the Bay of Biscay (Paterson 1985) and the?Azores; reported also from Reunion Island (Indian Ocean; Vadon & Guille 1984) and New Caledonia (SW Pacific Ocean; Améziane 2007).
Depth: 1,175 –2,862 (?4,020) m (Vadon & Guille 1984, Paterson 1985); AZO:? 4,020 m (Koehler 1909).
Habitat: soft bottoms (detrictic mud; Vadon & Guille 1984).
Remarks: Koehler (1909) identified two individuals collected by Princesse Alice in the Azores as Anthophiura minuta (= Ophioglypha minuta) (sta 527: 38°09’00”N, 23°15’45”W, 4,020 m). However, he added that the Azorean specimens were different from Lyman’s (1878) type material collected by H.M.S. Challenger half way between the Antarctic and Australian waters, but identical to Caudan animals from the Bay of Biscay (Koehler 1895c, 1896c). Additionally, Koehler (1909) remarked on the very simple structure that characterises the material collected by H.M.S. Challenger, Caudan and Princesse Alice, possibly juveniles belonging to two different species. Later, Fasmer (1930) believed that these animals belonged to his newly described species, Anthophiura ingolfi based on the description of the disc scaling, an opinion shared by later authors (e.g., Mortensen 1933a; Paterson 1985). However, Fasmer remarked Koehler’s material was lost and without its re-examination the presence of A. ingolfi in the Azores and the Bay of Biscay could not be confirmed. Paterson (1985) was able to confidently expand the geographical range of Fasmer’s species to the Bay of Biscay, based on the material collected by the oceanographic mission Biogas. Thus, and in spite of the absence of confirmed records, we have transferred the Azorean specimens from A. minuta (a strictly Pacific species) to A. ingolfi, following Fasmer (1930) and Paterson (1985).