Ophiophrixus spinosus (Storm, 1881) — Paterson 1985: 21–22, fig. 12: 169.
Type locality: Norway.
See: Mortensen (1927a: 171–172, figs. 96–97); Paterson (1985).
Occurrence: Northeast Atlantic, from the Denmark Strait and off SE of Iceland to off NW African waters (Koehler 1906b, Mortensen 1933a).
Depth: 40– 1,383 m (Harvey et al. 1988).
Habitat: soft bottoms, sand, mud to ooze (Farran 1913).
Larval stage: viviparous (Kasyanov et al. 1998).
Remarks: Koehler (1906b) reported Ophiophrixus spinosus (as Ophiobyrsa hystricis) from off the coast of Morocco (Talisman, sta 20, 1883: 33°43’N, 9°01’46″W, 1,105 m), a species previously known from Icelandic and Scandinavian waters. Mortensen (1927a) referred to this record as between Madeira and NW Africa, which later changed to ‘off Madeira’ (Mortensen 1933a). Paterson (1985) placed the southern limit of this species not in Morocco or Madeira, but in the Azores, which is clearly a mistake, that was repeated in subsequent literature.