Stichopathes, Brook, 1889

Wagner, Daniel & Shuler, Andrew, 2017, The black coral fauna (Cnidaria: Antipatharia) of Bermuda with new records, Zootaxa 4344 (2), pp. 367-379 : 372

Stichopathes sp.

Stichopathes sp. forms unbranched colonies that are up to 1 m in height or more and coiled distally ( Figure 4a ). The skeletal spines are subcylindrical and covered with distinct tubercles towards their distal third ( Figure 4d–e ). Polypar spines are generally 190–300 µm in height, whereas abpolypar spines are only 150–240 µm in height ( Figure 4d–e ). Skeletal spines are arranged in axial rows with adjoining rows offset in a spiral pattern around the corallum ( Figure 4d ). Spine spacing is fairly even within each row, and typically ranges between 400–575 µm ( Figure 4d ). The polyps are up 1.0– 1.5 mm in transverse diameter, and spaced 1.0– 1.7 mm apart ( Figure 4c ). The coloration of living colonies was unfortunately not documented as part of this study. As noted earlier, the morphology of the spines of this species resembles a syntype of S. pourtalesi (MCZ 90362), which was collected at 232 m off Cuba, and recently reassigned to an undescribed species within the genus Stichopathes ( Bo & Opresko, 2015) . This reassignment was a result of the realization that the type series of S. pourtalesi contains multiple species ( Bo & Opresko, 2015). Future studies will need to be undertaken in order to define the diagnostic characters of Stichopathes sp., as well as to document its biogeographical distribution. Stichopathes sp. specimens examined as part of this study were collected from Bermudan waters at depths ranging between 279–304 m ( Table 1).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Stichopathes sp. from Bermuda showing (a) preserved specimen (scale bar = 2 cm), (b) polyps on terminal branch under light microscopy (scale bar = 2 mm), (c) skeletal spines on terminal branch under SEM (scale bar = 200 µm), and (d) close-up of polypar spine under SEM (scale bar = 50 µm).