Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864

Breedy, Odalisca, Rouse, Greg W., Stabbins, April, Cortés, Jorge & Cordes, Erik E., 2019, New records of Swiftia (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Octocorallia) from off the Pacific Costa Rican margin, including a new species from methane seeps, Zootaxa 4671 (3), pp. 407-419 : 409

Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864

Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864:13 ; Kükenthal, 1924: 236; Deichmann, 1936: 185–186; Bayer, 1956: F206; Bayer, 1981: 945; Harden, 1979: 109–110; Breedy, et al., 2015: 329; Williams & Breedy, 2016: 3.

Stenogorgia Verrill, 1883: 29 (see Kükenthal, 1924: 347 for Stenogorgia synonymy).

Platycaulos Wright & Studer, 1889: 61 : Bayer, 1981: 945.

Callistephanus Wright & Studer, 1889: 62 : Bayer, 1981: 945.

Allogorgia Verrill, 1928: 7 ; Bayer, 1981: 945.

Diagnosis (modified from Breedy et al. 2015, Williams & Breedy 2016). Growth form variable, whip-like, fan-like or bushy. Colonies branching in one or several planes, lateral, fan-like, dichotomous, pinnate-like, or unbranched. Branches mostly free or with some anastomoses. Axis horny with non-mineralised organic fibers filling the axial chambers. Polyp mounds low-rounded to cylindrical or conical, slightly raised to prominent, scattered, or crowded, usually biserial or present on all sides of polyp-bearing branches, giving, in some cases, a zigzag outline characteristic of some Swiftia colonies. Coenenchyme usually thin. Coenenchymal sclerites mostly capstans and spindles many of which are modified to a lesser or greater degree as discs, eight-radiates, and irregular spindles. Wart clubs and/or plates present in some species. Anthocodiae with point arrangements of straight to curved bar-like rods, and frequently elongate tuberculated spindles and warty clubs. Collaret absent or of a few bar-like rods transversely arranged. Polyp-neck zone nude or with plates or scales. Colour of the colonies red, orange, pink or white.

Type species: Swiftia exserta ( Ellis & Solander, 1786)

Distribution. The genus has been reported for the western and northeast Atlantic, Indo-Pacific, and in the Pacific from Californian and northern Patagonia in the Magellanic Province, Chile, and from the Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands ( Breedy et al. 2015) with about 23 species considered as valid according to the World Register of Marine Species 2019 (WORMS).