Parisis fruticosa Verrill, 1864

Ramvilas, Ghosh, Alderslade, Philip & Ranjeet, Kutty, 2023, The taxonomy of Indian gorgonians: an assessment of the descriptive records of gorgonians (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) recorded as occurring in the territorial waters of India, along with neighbouring regions and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the highlighting of perceived unethical practice, Zootaxa 5236 (1), pp. 1-124 : 33-34

Parisis fruticosa Verrill, 1864

Parisis fruticosa Verrill, 1864: 37 (Sulu Sea); Grasshoff 1999: 13, fig. 13a, 14, 16a ( New Caledonia); Grasshoff 2000: 60–61 (Red Sea).

? Parisis indica Thomson & Henderson, 1906: 23–24 , pl. 4, figs. 4, 5, 8, 9 (Andamans).

Opinion: The presence of this species in the region cannot be confirmed.

Justification:

These Indian records are either unconfirmable or seem to be invalid: Thomson & Henderson 1906: 23–24, pl. 4, figs. 4, 5, 8, 9 (Andamans); Thomson & Simpson 1909: 176–179, figs 74–75 (Andamans); Thomas & George 1990: 418–419, pl. 1G; fig. 1a, 1–9 ( Mumbai); Thomas et al. 1998: 159–160 (SW coast); Fernando 2011: 25, pl. 6, fig. 2–2d (SE coast); Fernando et al. 2017: 41, pl. 15, fig. 2–2d (SE coast).

Literature analysis: Species of Parisis are characterised by the nature of the axis and of the coenenchymal sclerites, which include large tuberculate plates. Unfortunately, the sclerites of P. fruticosa , the type species of the genus, have never been figured leaving it as essentially unrecognisable. The best descriptions purporting to be of specimens of this species are those of Grasshoff (2000, 1999). Parisis indica described by Thomson & Henderson (1906) from off the Andamans is considered as a synonym of P. fruticosa , but the authors described the species has having spindles (up to 0.2 x 0.75 mm) forming a pavement like coenenchyme, which is quite different from the coenenchymal plates P. fruticosa . Unfortunately, the original description of P. indica did not include any sclerites figures and the type has never been revised, so at present it’s synonymy with P. fruticosa is uncertain.

Thomson and Simpson (1909) gave no sclerite illustrations in their description of the material they assigned to P. fruticosa so it is impossible to verify their identification. The sclerite figures of Thomas & George (1990) are somewhat simplistic so it is not possible to say what species they were dealing with, and Thomas et al. (1998) gave no illustrations. Grasshoff (1999: fig. 16) only illustrated 4 sclerites from his New Caledonia specimen, but he compared them with those from another species and clearly showed how the detail of the warting on the outer surface of the large coenenchymal plates is important for discriminating between taxa, but the identical descriptions of the Indian material by Fernando (2011) and Fernando et al. (2017) figured images of sclerite mixtures that are far too small to be able to see any of the surface structure at all. Rao & Devi (2003) just listed the species.

The holotype of P. fruticosa was collected from the Sulu Sea in Indonesia .