Laviactis, Grajales, Alejandro & Rodríguez, Estefanía, 2014

Grajales, Alejandro & Rodríguez, Estefanía, 2014, Morphological revision of the genus Aiptasia and the family Aiptasiidae (Cnidaria, Actiniaria, Metridioidea), Zootaxa 3826 (1), pp. 55-100 : 89

Genus Laviactis gen. nov. Grajales & Rodríguez

Diagnosis. Aiptasiidae with wide and regularly shaped pedal disc. Column smooth, with up to five rows of cinclides in mid-column; column distinctly divisible into scapus and capitulum. Mesogleal marginal sphincter weak, alveolar. Tentacles to 192, not fully retractile with scattered, spherical hollow vesicles containing nematocyst batteries and longitudinal muscles. More mesenteries distally than proximally. Six pairs of perfect and fertile mesenteries. Oral stoma. Retractors diffuse. Symbiotic with Symbiodinium spp. No asexual reproduction (?). Cnidom: spirocysts, basitrichs and microbasic b -mastigophores and p -amastigophores.

Type species. Capnea lucida Duchassaing de Fombressin & Michelotti, 1860 by original designation.

Included species. Laviactis lucida (Duchassaing de Fombressin & Michelotti, 1860) comb. nov.; L. hyalina ( Le Sueur, 1817) comb. nov. (?).

Etymology. The genus name comes from the Greek " Lavi " meaning "round protuberance" and " actis " a common suffix for actiniarian genera.

Taxonomic remarks. We erect a new genus for the former Ragactis lucida ( Andres, 1883) . The genus Ragactis was originally described by Andres (1883) for Ragactis pulchra , currently Phymanthus pulcher ; he incorporated Capena lucida as the second species of Ragactis ( Andres 1883) . Thus, the diagnosis of the genus Ragactis corresponds to P. pulcher (its type species) and it is a synonym of Phymanthus . Other genera in which Laviactis lucida comb. nov. was previously included (e.g. Heteractis , Bartholomea , Aiptasia , see below) correspond to sets of characters defining different species than those of L. lucida comb. nov.; thus, we erect a new genus for the species.