On the occurrence of Haliotes pourtalesii Dall, 1881, off Surinam (South America)

Haliotis pourtalesii Dall, 1881 has so far only been reported from the Gulf of Mexico. The localities are given in fig. 1. The following material has been reported upon in the literature: The holotype (Dall, 1881: 79) was found in: "bed of the Gulf Stream in 200 fathoms, near the Florida reefs". This holotype was destroyed before its description, which was made by Dall from memory. One specimen, made the neotype by Henderson (1915: 660, pls. 45, 46) was "dredged off Key West in 90 fathoms" (Henderson, 1915: 659). This locality was described in more detail on page 660 as: "dredged about 2 miles off Sand Key, Florida in 90 fathoms, on sand patches among rocks, on the edge of the 'Pourtales plateau' ". Five imperfect shells were collected by Henderson in 1916 in the Key West region in 90, 85 and 65 fathoms (Foster, 1946: 39). One nearly complete specimen and several shell fragments were collected by L. A. Burry off Key Largo and Sombrero Light in 92-100 and 66 fathoms (Foster, 1946: 38, 39, pl. 22). The description and photographs in Foster's paper were made after the nearly complete specimen. The detailed locality where it was found is given as: "5.5 miles S.E. of the Elbow, Key Largo, in 92-100 fathoms". One specimen was found off Yucatan peninsula in 67 fathoms at 210 21' N 86° 30' W (Harry, 1966: 207, pl. 30). Eighty eight complete and thirteen incomplete specimens were dredged off the coast of Havana, Cuba, in 20-35 fathoms (Sarasua, 1968: 4, figs. 1, 2). Until recently H. pourtalesii was considered to be a rare species. However, Sarasua (1968: 1) listed one hundred and one specimens. This fairly large