Leptogorgia ruberrima (W. Koch, 1886)

Breedy, Odalisca & Guzman, Hector M., 2015, A revision of the genus Muricea Lamouroux, 1821 (Anthozoa, Octocorallia) in the eastern Pacific. Part I: Eumuricea Verrill, 1869 revisited, ZooKeys 537, pp. 1-32 : 22-23

Taxon classification Animalia Alcyonacea Gorgoniidae

Leptogorgia ruberrima (W. Koch, 1886) Figure 14

Gorgonia ruberrima W. Koch, 1886: 14-18.

Eumuricea rugosa Thomson 1927: 48.

Leptogorgia monodi Stiasny 1937: 309.

Leptogorgia ruberrima Stiasny, 1940: 361; Grasshoff 1988: 111; 1992: 72 (synonymy according to Grasshoff 1992).

Material.

Holotype: BM 1933.03.13.024, fragment, ethanol preserved, Campagne 1901, Stn. 1203: 15°54' N, 22°54'45"E, Iles du Cap Vert, 91 m, 18 August 1901.

Description

(see also Thomson 1927). The holotype is a bright red fragment, 3 cm long and 3 cm wide (Fig. 14A). Thompson (1927) described a 15.5 cm tall colony. The branches are 2 mm in diameter. The axis is amber. The calyces are cones projecting up to 0.75 mm high and about 1 mm in diameter. They are placed all around the branches about 1 mm apart. The coenenchymal sclerites are red and basically warty spindles with acute ends, straight or curved, 0.2 mm– 0.32 mm long and 0.065 mm– 0.087 mm wide, and radiates 0.10-0.20 mm long and 0.04 mm– 0.045 mm wide (Fig. 14 B–C). Anthocodial sclerites are flat orange rods in an irregular point and collaret formation. They are 0.050 mm– 0.15 mm long, with lobed or smooth borders (Fig. 14B). The sizes of sclerites given by Thomson (1927) are smaller than the ones we analysed in the holotype fragment. The colour of the colony is bright red.

Distribution.

Reported from the scientific campaigns of Prince Albert 1st de Monaco in 1901, Station 1203, along Iles du Cap Vert, 15°54' N, 22°54'45"E, Western Atlantic.

Remarks.

Thomson (1927) described two species of Eumuricea , Eumuricea rigida and Eumuricea rugosa but neither of these fit in the genus Eumuricea . The former was transferred to Thesea (Table 2) by Ofwegen (2014), and the latter does not show the characteristic spheroid plate-like sclerites of Thesea in the outer coenenchyme. The coenenchyme of Eumuricea rugosa is composed of acute, elongated spindles instead. We confirm the finding of Grasshoff (1992) that this is nothing other than Leptogorgia ruberrina (W. Koch, 1886).