Verrucella rubra Thomson & Henderson, 1905

Ramvilas, Ghosh, Alderslade, Philip & Ranjeet, Kutty, 2023, The taxonomy of Indian gorgonians: an assessment of the descriptive records of gorgonians (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) recorded as occurring in the territorial waters of India, along with neighbouring regions and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the highlighting of perceived unethical practice, Zootaxa 5236 (1), pp. 1-124 : 104

publication ID	https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5236.1.1
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:796FF9F5-E71F-4C69-92CC-CF4D6752BD77
DOI	https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7639805
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0388B641-7B71-FFCB-FF56-FF6EFBC2FD3A
treatment provided by	Plazi (2023-02-08 15:54:05, last updated 2024-11-28 18:43:59)
scientific name	Verrucella rubra Thomson & Henderson, 1905
status

Treatment

Verrucella rubra Thomson & Henderson, 1905: 315–315 , pl. 4, fig. 13; pl. 5, fig. 8 (Gulf of Mannar).

Opinion: This species does occur in the region, but its true identity is unknown.

Justification:

These Indian records seem to be either invalid or unconfirmable: Thomas & George 1986: 110, fig. 1t, 1–3 (SW coast; Gulf of Mannar).

Literature analysis: This species was established for a badly damaged specimen from the Sri Lankan side of the Gulf of Mannar, but it is unrecognisable from the original poor description and has never been redescribed. Nevertheless, Kükenthal (1924) synonymised the species under Gorgonella umbraculum ( Ellis & Solander, 1786) , which was also unrecognisable at the time: a neotype for that species was designated by Bayer & Grasshoff (1994).

Without knowing the characters of the species, Thomas & George (1986) assigned material to it under the old genus Gorgonella , but that cannot be validated until the original material is redescribed. Verrucella rubra is not currently in the WoRMS database. Thomas & George (1987) just listed the species.

References

Bayer, F. M. & Grasshoff, M. (1994) The genus group taxa of the family Ellisellidae, with clarification of the genera established by J. E. Gray (Cnidaria; Octocorallia). Senckenbergiana biologica, 74 (1 / 2), 21 - 45.

Ellis, J. & Solander, D. (1786) The Natural History of many curious and uncommon zoophytes, collected by the late John Ellis and systematically arranged and described by the Daniel Solander. Benjamin White & Son, London, xii + 208 pp., 63 pls. https: // doi. org / 10.5962 / bhl. title. 2145

Kukenthal, W. (1924) Gorgonaria. Das Tierreich. Vol. 47. Walter de Gruyter and Co., Berlin und Leipzig, xxviii + 478 pp.

Thomas, P. A. & George, R. M. (1986) A systematic appraisal of the commercially important gorgonids of the Indian seas. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of India, 28 (1 & 2), 96 - 112.

Thomas, P. A. & George, R. M. (1987) Gorgonid resources of India. Marine Fisheries Information Services, 74, 1 - 13.

Thomson, J. A. & Henderson, W. D. (1905) Report on the Alcyonaria collected by Professor Herdman, at Ceylon, in 1902. In: Herdman, W. A. (Eds.), Report of the Government of Ceylon on the Pearl Oyster Fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar. Part 3. Supplementary report. The Royal Society, London, pp. 269 - 238.