Xenia grasshoffi Verseveldt, 1974

Halász, Anna, Mcfadden, Catherine S., Toonen, Robert & Benayahu, Yehuda, 2019, Re-description of type material of Xenia Lamarck, 1816 (Octocorallia: Xeniidae), Zootaxa 4652 (2), pp. 201-239 : 214

publication ID

https://doi.org/ 10.11646/zootaxa.4652.2.1

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:04D7DC4C-5EBC-4C5A-9E68-7795E8E60ECA

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5944964

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/967E5C11-AC23-900D-FF5A-FC7416D4F94D

treatment provided by

Plazi

scientific name

Xenia grasshoffi Verseveldt, 1974
status

 

Xenia grasshoffi Verseveldt, 1974

Fig. 8 View FIGURE 8

Xenia grasshoffi ; Verseveldt, 1974a: 34–35, Fig. 34

Material. Holotype: SMF 2616 About SMF , northern Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba, Eilat, 1968, coll. M. Grasshoff.

Description. The holotype is 28 mm high; its stalk is 23 mm long, 10 mm wide at its base and 25 mm wide at the uppermost part. The polyp body is up to 3 mm long, and the tentacles are up to 2 mm long, featuring four rows of pinnules on each side. The pinnules are relatively short and stout, up to 0.24 mm long and 0.20 mm wide, 15–24 in the outermost row with no gap between adjacent pinnules.

Sclerites are ellipsoid platelets, measuring 0.009 –0.017 X 0.015 –0.023 mm in diameter ( Fig. 8 View FIGURE 8 a–d, n=27). Occasionally, a crest is present on the surface of the sclerite ( Fig. 8b, d View FIGURE 8 ). Rarely, a median waist can be seen ( Fig. 8a View FIGURE 8 ). They are composed of calcite rods arranged radially, and at the center of the sclerite they are randomly arranged ( Fig. 8b, c View FIGURE 8 ). Many of the sclerites are fractured ( Fig. 8a, b, d View FIGURE 8 ). The ethanol-preserved holotype is light cream in color and polyps are almost white.

Remarks. The current findings correspond to the original description of X. grasshoffi ( Verseveldt 1974a: four rows and 15–24 pinnules vs. four and occasionally five rows and 16–20 pinnules, respectively). The sclerites were originally described as: "spicules of general xeniid type: round or oval corpuscle" and the current measurements reveal that their size corresponds to the original description (0.009 –0.017 X 0.015 –0.023 vs. 0.024 in the stalk and 0.021 in the tentacles, respectively).

Similar species. Xenia flexibilis n. sp. and X. grasshoffi feature four rows of pinnules and a certain overlap in the number of pinnules in the outermost row (14–32 vs. 15–24). However, the sclerites of X. grasshoffi feature surface crests which are absent in X. flexibilis and thus they should be considered as separate species.

Distribution. Red Sea.

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Coleoptera

Family

Curculionidae

Genus

Xenia

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