Adinisis, Lapointe & Watling, 2022

Lapointe, Abby & Watling, Les, 2022, Towards a revision of the bamboo corals (Octocorallia): Part 5, new genera and species of Keratoisididae from the Tasmanian deep sea, Zootaxa 5168 (2), pp. 137-157 : 149

Adinisis new genus

Diagnosis. Colony varies from unbranched whip to branched fans with a thick and robust axis. Polyps are densely arranged along the axis, with little coenenchyme between them. Polyps usually have a thick epidermal layer supported by collagen fibers. Sclerites in the distal portion of the polyp body are all or predominantly needles or rods with a distinctly septal arrangement. The basal part of the polyp body and coenenchyme may contain numerous scales or may be devoid of sclerites. Pharyngeal sclerites are wide, thorny rods, often with acute teeth.

Type species. Adinisis thresheri n. sp.

Etymology. The name of this genus is based on the Greek adinos = meaning thick, dense, crowded, in reference to the very dense arrangement of polyps along the axis + isis, the stem name of the group.

Remarks. Adinisis is characterized by the thick and robust axis densely covered with generally tall polyps. This genus characterizes most of clade B1 of Watling et al. (2022) ( Fig. 2 ), whose colony form is generally unbranched tall and curly whips, but also includes a small subclade of undescribed fan-like colonies with unusual polyps found off the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Those specimens and a large number of other species attributable to this genus will be described in a future paper.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Cladogram of the Keratoisididae modified from Watling et al. (2022). New taxa added in this paper are in bold lettering. Bootstrap values>50 are shown above the nodes and Bayesian probability values>0.5 are shown below the nodes. Major clades are referred to by the designation along the right side of the cladogram.