Isis hippuris Linnaeus, 1758

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 : 110

Isis hippuris Linnaeus, 1758

Isis hippuris Linnaeus, 1758: 799 (unknown locality); Bayer & Stefani 1987: 55–57, pl. 1–7.

Opinion: It is not possible to determine if this species occurs in the region.

Justification:

These Indian records seem to be either invalid or unconfirmable: Simpson 1906: 425–432, fig. a–i; pl. 43, fig. 1–4 (Andamans); Thomson & Simpson 1909: 184–190, fig. 76. Fig. 77 a–i (Andamans); Thomas & George 1986: 111, fig. 1v 1–3, 2a (Andaman Is.); Fernando 2011: 131–132, pl. 95, fig. 1–1e (Andaman and Nicobar Is.); Kumar et al. 2014a: 44, pl. 19, fig. A–E (Andaman and Nicobar Is.); Fernando et al. 2017: 308, pl. 145, fig. A–E (Andaman and Nicobar Is.).

Literature analysis: Bayer & Stefani (1987) detailed many morphologically different forms of putative Isis hippuris specimens from the Philippines and the Ryukyus across to New Caledonia that showed a huge range of sclerite forms, and Rowley et al. (2015) suggested there may have been two different species at her study sites in Indonesia. The first record of the species occurring in the region is that of Simpson (1906), but his material contained quite different sclerites in the tentacles and its identity was questioned by Bayer & Stephani. Unfortunately, none of the other descriptions of Indian specimens assigned to this species mention the tentacle sclerites, and the surface sclerites the authors illustrate are different from those shown by Simpson and also by Bayer & Stephani (1987). Kumar et al. (2019b) lists the species and present a very small underwater image of a colony that seems to be similar to those from the Indo-Pacific generally assigned to this species, but the colonies figured by Simpson, Thomson & Simpson (1909), Kumar et al. (2014a) and Fernando et al. (2017) have a different and quite an unusual growth form. The descriptive texts given by Fernando (2011) and Fernando et al. (2017) are identical, but the illustrations are different, there being only naked colony axes in the 2011 paper. The illustrations in the 2017 paper are the same as those in Kumar et al. (2014a).

Thomas & George (1987) and Rao & Devi (2003) just list the species, and Kumar et al. (2015, 2018) list the species and provide an image of part of the material from 2014 and 2017 papers mentioned above. Kumar et al. (2019b) lists the species and provide a colony image, while Kumar et al. (2018a) just lists the species.