Parastenella ramosa (Studer, 1894)

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 III: Suborder Holaxonia continued, and suborder Calcaxonia, ZooKeys 860, pp. 183-306 : 246-247

Parastenella ramosa (Studer, 1894)

Stenella ramosa Studer, 1894: 64, 65.

Stenella (Parastenella) ramosa (Wright & Studer, 1889): 56. Versluys 1906: 47, 48. Kükenthal & Gorzawsky, 1908: 34, 35. Kükenthal 1919: 445; 1924: 303.

Parastenella ramosa Cairns, 2007b: 518-523, figs 1E, 4, 5. Cairns and Bayer 2009: 31 (listed). Cairns 2011: 24, 25.

? Stenella doederleini Studer, 1894: 64; see Remarks, below.

Material examined.

No specimens in SBMNH collection (see Appendix 3: List of material examined).

Remarks.

Species included here as collection records examined (see Appendix 3: List of material examined) show a distributional range that includes the California Bight. Based on those collection records, this is a deep-water species that has been collected off the west coast of Central America, and from areas of the California coast, to just north of the Santa Barbara Channel Islands (Rodriquez Seamount). It has also been collected from Monterey Bay (Davidson Seamount), north to Oregon, Washington, Vancouver Island to Gulf of Alaska; 665-1750 m. Cairns (2011) stated that the known distributional range of this species now extends west to Adak Canyon in the Aleutian Islands and the Commander Islands, Russia. This represents a substantial range, encompassing the California Bight region.

Cairns (2007b) stated that given the similarity of Parastenella doederleini (Wright & Studer, 1889) and Parastenella ramosa , "it is likely that Studer’s (1894) identification of S. doederleini from off Panama at 1,429 m (specimen missing from MCZ), taken quite close to the type locality of P. ramosa , is probably also P. ramosa ." This species is generally most similar to the type for the genus, P. doederleini (Wright & Studer, 1889). That specimen was collected from off Sagami Bay, Japan at 3,427 m. Cairns (2007b) differentiated between the two; P. doederleini has more elongated and slender marginal flutes, more delicate polyps and coenenchymal scales with one or more small rounded knobs either at their center and/or on their perimeter. Specimens of P. ramosa examined (indicated in the Appendix 3: List of material examined), exhibited polyps more distinctly directed downwards and the marginal flutes were slightly broader than those seen in P. doederleini . A check of the WoRMS Database (Cordeiro et al. 2019) show both P. ramosa and P. doederleini as separate, accepted species. As well, P. ramosa can easily be distinguished from P. pacifica by the latter having obviously broad, shallow marginal flutes, eight rows of submarginal body wall scales and the absence of flutes on submarginal abaxial body wall scales; P. ramosa exhibits narrow, tubular marginal flutes, five rows of submarginal body wall scales and abaxial body wall scales with flutes. Additionally, Cairns (2011) stated that the confirmed presence of nematocyst pads on the inner surface of the marginal scales in this species might be the case for all species in the genus, as suggested in Cairns, 2010.