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ABSTRACT
The sea urchin Centrostephanus longispinus rubicingulus was rediscovered on the continental shelf of Brazil. The subspecies was merely recorded in 1955, when Bernasconi described Centrostephanus besnardi (a synonym of C. longispinus rubicingulus), on the basis of two specimens collected at Trindade Island (State of Espírito Santo). This is the first record of this subspecies for northeastern Brazil (State of Rio Grande do Norte). A description is provided, along with comments on morphology and synonymy, illustrations of diagnostic characters and, for the first time, SEM figures of the pedicellariae of C. longispinus rubicingulus. An extended list of synonyms for the genus and species is included. This record raises the number of echinoids known from Northeastern Brazil to 32 species.
SUBJECT EDITOR:
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Sr. Luis Ferreira Damasceno (Belo) for collecting and donating one of the specimens studied. We thank Dr. Mariela V. Romanelli (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’) for sending photos of the paratypes of Centrostephanus besnardi. We also wish to thank M.Sc. Giovvana Correa (UNAM) for sending several important papers which helped us confirm our identification. We also thank the technical staff of CETENE (Centro de Tecnologias Estratégicas do Nordeste) for the SEM analysis. Anne I. Gondim was supported by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) through her postdoctoral scholarship (Process number: 150070/2018-7). Martin L. Christoffersen is supported by a CNPq productivity research grant (Process number: 302388/2014-1). We also thank all the people who somehow contributed to this study.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.