Leptogorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857

Horvath, Elizabeth Anne, 2019, A review of gorgonian coral species (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Alcyonacea) held in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History research collection: focus on species from Scleraxonia, Holaxonia, Calcaxonia - Part II: Species of Holaxonia, families Gorgoniidae and Plexauridae, ZooKeys 860, pp. 67-182 : 67

Genus Leptogorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857

Gorgonia (pars) Pallas, 1766: 160. Milne Edwards and Haime 1857 (pars): 157.

Leptogorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857: 163. Verrill 1864 (pars): 31, 33; 1868b: 387; 1869b: 420. Studer 1887 (in Wright): 64. Bielschowsky 1918: 18. Kükenthal 1919: 851; 1924: 324-325. Bielschowsky 1929: 81. Stiasny 1943 a: 87. Bayer 1951: 98-99; 1956a: F212; 1961: 214. Grasshoff 1988: 97; 1992: 54. Williams 1992: 231. Williams and Lindo 1997: 500. Bayer 2000: 609. Breedy and Guzmán 2005: 2; 2007: 6. Horvath 2011: 46. Breedy and Cortés 2011: 63.

Lophogorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857: 167. Nutting 1910c: 3, 4. Kükenthal 1924: 322. Bielschowsky 1929: 73. Stiasny 1943: 87. Bayer 1951: 99; 1956a: F212; 1961: 194. (Type species by monotypy: Gorgonia palma Pallas, 1766 [South Africa]).

Type species.

Gorgonia viminalis Pallas, 1766; subsequent designation by Verrill 1868a.

Diagnosis.

Sclerites primarily symmetrical spindles, most without unilateral fusion of warts to form discs; shorter ones may have warts on one side fused like those of disc spindles; long ones symmetrical or with warts on one side simple, conical, elsewhere complex tubercles in various arrangements (several whorls). Coenenchyme generally contains only spindles and radiate capstans with symmetrically developed tuberculation; warts/tubercles mostly in two whorls on capstans. Anthocodial armature flattened rods; sometimes, ovoid platelets. Colonies little-branched, long, slender, whip-like, or short with branching variable: pinnate, lateral or dichotomous, in one plane or bushy; color of colonies highly variable. Colonies either attached to substrate with holdfast or lying free on substrate. Axis consistent for family, containing network of organic filaments, frequently mineralized. Polyps fully retractile into coenenchyme; slightly raised, mound-like, around apertures.

Remarks.

Bayer (1951) stated that Leptogorgia contains many species in temperate and tropical waters; although represented practically around the world, the center of distribution seems to be the west coast of Central America ( Breedy and Guzmán 2007, Breedy and Cortés 2011, Breedy and Guzmán 2012).