Achelia sawayai Marcus, 1940

Achelia sawayai Marcus, 1940 View in CoL

( Fig. 2A View FIGURE 2 )

Achelia sawayai Marcus, 1940: 81–86 View in CoL , figs. 10 A–F, 17; Müller, 1989: 124, fig. 40; Montoya-Bravo et al., 2009: 10–11, figs.1– 4.

Type locality — Bay of Saints and Itanhaen ( 53 km south from Santos), Brazil

Material examined. Bissau-0810: BS191, 2♀; BS194, 1♀; BS195, 1 juvenile.

Remarks. Our material agrees with the original description and figures of the female holotype provided by Marcus (1940). The juvenile is still chelate ( Fig 2A View FIGURE 2 ) but the characteristics of the species are clearly visible.

Habitat. This species has been collected from bottoms with foraminifera ( Stock 1966), dead corals ( Müller 1989), sand ( Stock 1989) and on rocky bottoms with algae (Montoya-Bravo, et al. 2009). Its bathymetric distribution extends from 0 to 115 m depth, with an isolated record at 157 m; nevertheless, this last record was considered as a possible contamination by shallow fouling from a ship hull ( Sabroux et al., 2022). Our material has been collected between 23 and 29 m.

Geographical distribution. This species shows a circumtropical distribution, recorded in the West and East Atlantic, Eastern Mediterranean, Indian, and Pacific Oceans ( Sabroux et al. 2022). In Northwest Africa it was reported from Mauritania ( Sabroux et al. 2022), Cabo Verde ( Fage & Stock 1966; Stock 1990), Guinea ( Stock 1966), and the Republic of the Congo ( Fage 1949). Our specimens were collected from Guinea-Bissau. Sabroux et al. (2022) reported that DNA barcoding studies imply at least three cryptic species for Achelia sawayai . Future research may confirm that many A. sawayai records were incorrectly assigned to this species, which would modify its current geographical distribution.