Cerianthus mortenseni Carlgren, 1924

Stampar, Sergio N., Reimer, James D., Maronna, Maximiliano M., Lopes, Celine S. S., Ceriello, Hellen, Santos, Thais B., Acuna, Fabian H. & Morandini, Andre C., 2020, Ceriantharia (Cnidaria) of the World: an annotated catalogue and key to species, ZooKeys 952, pp. 1-63 : 1

17 (?) Cerianthus mortenseni Carlgren, 1924

Cerianthus mortenseni Carlgren, 1924: 175-182, 195; Molodtsova 2001b: 773

Type locality.

Paniquian Island, Mindoro, Philippines.

Distribution.

Only known from shallow water at the type locality.

Remarks.

This is a very intriguing species as the two specimens described in the original description are very different in shape. The organization of the mesenteries is not coincident on both sides of the body, indicating a considerable difference in the development of mesenteries ( Carlgren 1924). This sort of large variation is not commonly reported in tube-dwelling anemones. The mesentery organization and associated structures indicate a strong correlation of these specimens with the genera Cerianthus and Pachycerianthus . Thus, this species may be important in the ongoing discussion about the validity of the genus Pachycerianthus (Torelli, 1961). Unfortunately, these are the only two specimens collected from the type locality (Philippines). Other specimens examined from this area (S. Stampar pers. obs.) are not similar to the specimens described by Carlgren (1924).

Type material.

Department of Zoology, University of Stockholm, Sweden (holotype) (?).