Plumarella Gray, 1870

Cairns, Stephen D., 2018, Deep-Water Octocorals (Cnidaria, Anthozoa) from the Galapagos and Cocos Islands. Part 1: Suborder Calcaxonia, ZooKeys 729, pp. 1-46 : 16

Genus Plumarella Gray, 1870

Plumarella Gray 1870: 36; Kükenthal 1919: 340-343; Bayer 1981: 936 (key to genus); Cairns and Bayer 2009: 39-40; Cairns 2011: 7; 2016: 51-52.

Type species.

Gorgonia penna Lamarck, 1815, by subsequent designation ( Wright and Studer 1889).

Diagnosis.

Colonies usually uniplanar and alternately pinnately branched, dichotomously branched, or bottlebrush in shape. Polyps arranged in alternate biserial fashion (nominate subgenus), crowded on all sides (subgenus Dicholaphis ), paired (subgenus Faxiella ), or arranged in whorls (subgenus Verticillata ). Each polyp covered by eight rows of body wall scales, the adaxial scales usually somewhat smaller. Distal edges of marginal body wall scales do not overlap much of opercular scales. Inner surface of opercular scales may be smooth or ridged, but not keeled, except in subgenus Faxiella .

Distribution.

Indo-Pacific, western Atlantic, Subantarctic, 10-3181 m deep.

Remarks.

There are 37 species in the genus arranged in four subgenera, most listed in Cairns (2011: table 2), however, two new subgenera were recently added by Zapata-Guardiola and López-González (2012) and Zapata-Guardiola, López-González and Gili (2012).