Bunodosoma cavernatum (Bosc, 1802)

Gonzalez-Munoz, Ricardo, Simoes, Nuno, Tello-Musi, Jose Luis & Rodriguez, Estefania, 2013, Sea anemones (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Actiniaria) from coral reefs in the southern Gulf of Mexico, ZooKeys 341, pp. 77-106 : 83-84

Bunodosoma cavernatum (Bosc, 1802) Figure 5, Table 2

Actinia cavernata Bosc 1802: 221-222.

Urticina cavernata : Duchassaing 1850: 9.

Bunodes cavernata : Verrill 1864: 17-18.

Phymactis cavernata : Andres 1883: 448.

Bunodosoma cavernata : Verrill 1899: 45.

Anthopleura cavernata : Cary 1906: 51.

Bunodosma cavernata : Daly 2003: 92.

Material examined.

La Gallega reef (19°13'20"N, 96°07'39"W; thirteen specimens), Ingenieros reef (19°08'41"N, 96°05'22"W; two specimens).

Diagnosis.

Fully expanded oral disc and tentacles to 20-38 mm in diameter. Oral disc 10-22 mm in diameter, smooth, brown-yellowish, brown-reddish or pale olive-green, sometimes with white or yellowish radial stripes in endocoelic spaces of first two or three tentacular cycles (Figure 5A, B). Tentacles hexamerously arranged in five cycles (about 96 in number), smooth, simple, conical, moderately long (3-5 mm in length), tapering distally, inner ones longer than outer ones, contractile, olive-green, reddish or pale-orange (Figure 5A, B), often with white or yellowish spots on oral side and sometimes with purple flashes. Deep fosse (Figure 5I). Forty-eight endocoelic rounded marginal projections forming acrorhagi (Figure 5C, I) with holotrichs and basitrichs. Column cylindrical, 12-22 in diameter and 7-15 mm in height, densely covered with rounded vesicles, arranged in 96 longitudinal rows from margin to limbus (Figure 5C, G). Pedal disc well-developed, 12-19 mm in diameter (Figure 5C). Column and pedal disc light-brown, orange, reddish, yellowish or olive-green. Mesenteries hexamerously arranged in four cycles (48 pairs in specimens examined): first, second and some mesen teries of third cycle perfect, others imperfect; same number of mesenteries distally and proximally. All mesenteries fertile (except directives); gonochoric; oocytes and spermatic cysts well-developed in specimens collected in January and May (Figure 5E). Two pairs of directives each attached to a well-developed siphonoglyph (Figure 5D). Retractor muscles strong and restricted; parietobasilar muscles well-developed with a relatively long free mesogleal pennon (Figure 5E). Basilar muscles well-developed (Figure 5H). Marginal sphincter muscle endodermal, strong and circumscribed (Figure 5I). Longitudinal muscles of tentacles ectodermal (Figure 5F). Zooxanthellae present. Cnidom: basitrichs, microbasic b- and p-mastigophores, holotrichs and spirocysts (Figure 5 J–T; see Table 2).

Natural history.

Bunodosoma cavernatum inhabits shallow waters, attached to rocks and coral rubble, in the lagoon zone; between 2-6 m.

Distribution.

Western Atlantic, from North Caroline to Barbados; along the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico ( Carlgren and Hedgpeth 1952); and Caroline Islands, Micronesia ( Bosc 1802). This is the first record for the coast of Mexico; found in the VRS (see Table 1).

Remarks.

Currently four valid species of Bunodosoma have been reported in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea ( González-Muñoz et al. 2012, Fautin 2013): Bunodosoma cavernatum , Bunodosoma granuliferum (Le Sueur, 1817), Bunodosoma kuekenthali Pax, 1910, and Bunodosoma sphaerulatum Duerden, 1902. Bunodosoma cavernatum differs from Bunodosoma granuliferum because it lacks the distinct chromatic pattern of the column with alternating pale and dark longitudinal bands but also based on molecular evidence (reviewed in González-Muñoz et al. 2012). Our specimens show that the circumscribed marginal sphincter muscle tends to split in two parts as suggested by Carlgren (1952) (Figure 5I). The distinction between Bunodosoma sphaerulatum and Bunodosoma kuekenthali and their Caribbean congeners are not clear based on the information available.