Genus Callogorgia Gray, 1858

Gorgonia Pallas, 1766: 160 (pars). Linnaeus 1767: 1289 (pars). Ellis and Solander 1786: 67 (pars).

Muricea Dana, 1846: 675 (pars).

Prymnoa Ehrenberg, 1834: 357 (pars).

Primnoa Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857: 139 (pars). von Koch 1878: 457; 1887: 85.

Callogorgia Gray, 1857 [1858]: 286. Bayer 1956: F220; 1961 [1962]: 296. Carpine and Grasshoff 1975: 102. Bayer 1981: 938; 1982: 119, 120. Bayer and Stefani 1989: 455. Bayer 1998: 162, 163. Cairns and Bayer 2002: 841-845; 2009: 29, 40. Cairns 2010: 425 (Hawaiian species); 2016: 58 (New Zealand species); 2018a: 6 (key to Indo-Pacific species); 2018b: 3. Cairns and Wirshing 2018: 8, 18, fig. 40.

Calligorgia Gray, 1870: 35 (unjustified emendation). Studer 1878 [1879]: 645; 1887: 51.

Fanellia Gray, 1870: 45. Bayer 1982: 134, 135. Bayer and Stefani 1989: 470, 471. Cairns and Bayer 2009: 40, 41. Cairns and Wirshing 2018: 8, 18.

Xiphocella Gray, 1870: 56 (type species, Gorgonia verticillata: sensu Esper, 1797: 156, by monotypy).

? Callicella Gray, 1870: 37 (type species, Callicella elegans Gray, 1870, by monotypy).

Caligorgia Wright & Studer, 1889: 75-77 (pars; unjustified emendation). Versluys 1906: 55 (pars). Kükenthal and Gorzawsky 1908: 19. Kinoshita 1908a: 34.

Nutting, 1908: 574. Kükenthal 1912: 320(?); 1915b: 146; 1919: 362 (pars); 1924: 267. Deichmann 1936: 158.

Type species.

Gorgonia verticillata Pallas, 1766 (by monotypy).

Diagnosis.

Colonies usually branched pinnately, some rarely dichotomously, mostly in one plane; axis longitudinally striated, commonly iridescent. Polyps in regular whorls, strongly bent inward toward axis. Adaxial rows of body scales reduced; opercular scales distinctly differentiated from body scales, not overreached by marginals (which do not bend inward over them); sclerites usually elaborately sculptured externally, with ridges, crests or small granules; cortical sclerites thick, pebble-like or more elongate.

Remarks.

WoRMS Database (Cordeiro et al. 2019) gives this genus accepted status, with this spelling.