Muricea molinai, Hernández & Gómez-Gutiérrez & Galván-Tirado & Sánchez, 2023

Hernandez, Osvaldo, Gomez-Gutierrez, Jaime, Galvan-Tirado, Carolina & Sanchez, Carlos, 2023, Three new species of the sea fan genus Muricea (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Plexauridae) from the northwest region of Mexico, ZooKeys 1169, pp. 333-352 : 333

publication ID	https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1169.89651
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B3CBCC79-BEE8-41B9-A8AB-69426EC0FBDA
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/F068F6FD-C900-45E7-85B0-55D8BD3355EC
taxon LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:act:F068F6FD-C900-45E7-85B0-55D8BD3355EC
treatment provided by	ZooKeys by Pensoft
scientific name	Muricea molinai
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Muricea molinai sp. nov.

Material examined.

Holotype. USNM 1606637: dry, Todos Santos , Punta Lobos (Bajo Fondo del Medio), Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico (23°21.34806'N, 110°15.40374'W), 35 m depth, 19 °C, 27 August 2016 (Fig. 1D View Figure l ) GoogleMaps . Paratypes. USNM 1606638: dry, Todos Santos , Punta Lobos ( Bajo Fondo del Medio ), Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico (23°21.34806'N, 110°15.40374'W), 35 m depth, 19 °C, 27 August 2016; USNM 1606639: dry, Bahía Santa María, Cabo San Lázaro (Roca del Cabito), Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico (24°44.85966'N, 112°15.56952'W), 29 m depth, 22.4 °C, 13 November 2013 (Fig. 1D View Figure l ). The type specimens were collected by Carlos Sánchez. GoogleMaps

Holotype colony description.

Muricea molinai sp. nov. colony coloration is gray with dark gray calyces and a creamy light gray coenenchyme (Fig. 6A, B View Figure 6 ). The colony is flabellate growing in one plane and laterally branched, reaching 15 cm in height and 14.7 cm in width (Table 1 View Table 1 ). The holdfast is 22 mm long and 13 mm wide. Two main stems arise from the holdfast one with 2.4 cm and the second one with 4.5 cm in height, subdividing laterally in stems of 7 mm in diameter (Fig. 6A View Figure 6 ). The growth branching pattern is upward, except six secondary branches, on both sides of the colony, which display more of a downward-growing trend. Terminal branches are up to 8.7 cm tall with blunt ends of 5 mm diameter. Calyces are tubular, 3 mm in height with a 1.5 mm diameter, with an imbricated arrangement throughout the colony (Fig. 6A, B View Figure 6 ).

Holotype sclerites.

The sclerites of the outer coenenchyme and calyx are unilateral (weakly) spinous spindles and tuberculated spindles (1.2-2.5 mm in length) (Figs 6C View Figure 6 , 7A-C View Figure 7 ). The spindles are curved or straight; most of them have acute ends or are bifurcated; tuberculated spindles with blunt ends are rare. The inner coenenchymal sclerites are mostly straight or curved spindles with acute ends (0.2-1.2 mm length), but there are rare blunt spindles. Anthocodial sclerites are small tuberculated spindles (1.1-1.8 mm length) with acute ends and rods with marginal lobes and acute ends (Fig. 7D View Figure 7 ). The color of the outer coenenchymal sclerites is gray, or gray with pale amber areas in the largest ones. The inner coenenchymal and anthocodial sclerites are colorless (Fig. 6C View Figure 6 ).

Morphological variation.

All twelve Muricea molinai sp. nov. colony specimens collected, including the paratypes ranging between 7 and 21 cm height (Fig. 8E-G View Figure 8 ; Suppl. material 1: fig. S5A, B), were morphologically similar to the holotype. No detectable color variability or different colony growth pattern was observed among the examined colonies of M. molinai sp. nov. (Table 1 View Table 1 ). The length of the tubular calyces is the main morphological variability among M. molinai sp. nov. specimens, where several colonies have longer calyces (> 4 mm in length throughout the colony) than other colonies with shorter calyces (<2 mm in length). The polyps of live colonies have white neck with translucent brown tentacles (Fig. 8F View Figure 8 ; Suppl. material 1: fig. S6C).

Habitat and distribution.

Muricea molinai sp. nov. is absent in the Gulf of California but overlaps its distribution and habitat with Muricea ambarae sp. nov. and Muricea cacao sp. nov. along the southwest coast of the Baja California Peninsula (Fig. 1B-D View Figure l ). Muricea molinai sp. nov. was collected between Bahía Magdalena and Cabo San Lucas; but it was absent at the Punta Abreojos site (Fig. 1D View Figure l ).

Remarks.

Live colonies of M. molinai sp. nov. (Fig. 8E-G View Figure 8 ) and Muricea squarrosa ( Breedy and Guzman 2015) (Suppl. material 1: fig. S6A-M) are similar, but the shape of the calyces and the differences in the diameter of the branches are the most evident diagnostic feature to distinguish them. Muricea molinai sp. nov. has a distinctive colony coloration, being light gray in the coenenchyme, and dark gray almost black in the calyces which extend sparsely from the base to the tip of the branches (Fig. 8E-G View Figure 8 ; Suppl. material 1: figs S5A, B, S6C-F). Preserved colonies of Muricea squarrosa are all reddish-brown and without calyces on the base and main stem. The long unilateral spinous spindles (2.5 mm) of M. molinai sp. nov. are one of the longest known spinous spindles among the species of the genus Muricea and without clubs in the coenenchyme and calyx while the spindles of M. squarrosa are smaller, only up to 1.3 mm in length ( Verrill 1868 reported spindles of 1.8 mm), and has club-like spindles in the calyx (absent in M. molinai sp. nov.). The main differences to separate Muricea acervata , M. hispida , M. tubigera and M. molinai sp. nov. (species belonging to the M. squarrosa species-group) are the size and arrangement of the calyces and the size of the sclerites. Muricea tubigera has the largest calyces (5 mm length) while M. molinai sp. nov. have calyces of 3 mm length. It is proposed that Muricea molinai sp. nov. be included in the Muricea squarrosa species-group previously erected by Breedy and Guzman (2015).

Etymology.

Muricea molinai sp. nov. is named in memory of Dr. José Mario Molina Pasquel y Henríquez (1943-2020), the first Mexican in 1995 to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Molina played a vital role in the discovery of the Antarctic ozone hole demonstrating that chlorofluorocarbon gases were the cause of the deterioration of the ozone layer.