Nephthea chabrollii ( Audouin, 1809 )

Lam, Katherine & Morton, Brian, 2008, Soft corals, sea fans, gorgonians (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) and black and wire corals (Ceriantipatharia: Antipatharia) from submarine caves in Hong Kong with a checklist of local species and a description of a new species of Paraminabea, Journal of Natural History 42 (9 - 12), pp. 749-780 : 753-754

Nephthea chabrollii ( Audouin, 1809)

( Figure 1E )

Nephthya chabrolii Audouin, 1809:230

Nephthya chabrolii Kükenthal, 1904:157 ; Thomson & Mackinnon 1910:182; Thomson & Dean 1931:83–84;

Nephthea chabrolii Roxas, 1933:412–413 ; Utinomi 1954:59, fig. 2; Utinomi 1956:233; Imahara 1996:26

Description

Bushy colony with a short stem which is early divided into several branches. Stem and branches cream, with orange polyps. The polyps arise in small clump-like lappets on the surfaces of the stem and branches and are borne on the terminal twigs or lappets. When fully expanded this species resembles Dendronephthya more than most species of Nephthea . Polyps are between 0.5–0.7 mm in size and sit at right angles on the polyp stalk. The supporting bundle consists of thorny spindles that do not project. Thorny sclerites occur in the upper cortex and star-shaped ones in the lower. Long spindles up to 1.3 mm in length are covered with simple prominences in the canal walls. The sclerites of the supporting bundle of the polyp are yellow tinged with red, giving the polyps an orange colour. Sclerites in the stem and branches are white.

Type locality

Egypt (Red Sea) .

Distribution

Red Sea, Pacific Ocean including the Java Sea, Celebes, Ternate, New Guinea, Palau, the South China Sea and the Great Barrier Reef.

Remarks

This species is a new record for Hong Kong. One specimen (60 mm × 40 mm) was collected from Conic Island Cave.

Figures

Figure 1. Living specimens of soft corals belonging to the Nephtheidae, Nidaliidae and Alcyoniidae. A, Scleronephthya pustulosa; B, Scleronephthya sp.; C, a dark red variety of Dendronephthya gigantea; D, a light pink variety of Dendronephthya gigantea; E, Nephthea chabrolii; F, Nephthyigorgia annectens; G, Paraminabea hongkongensis sp. nov. Scale bar52 cm.