Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864

Sampaio, I ́ ris, Beuck, Lydia & Freiwald, Andre ́, 2022, A new octocoral species of Swiftia (Holaxonia, Plexauridae) from the upper bathyal off Mauritania (NE Atlantic), ZooKeys 1106, pp. 121-140 : 121

Genus Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864

Swiftia Duchassaing & Michelotti, 1864: 13; Kükenthal 1924: 236; Deichmann 1936: 185-186; Bayer 1956: F206; Grasshoff 1977: 61-62; Grasshoff 1981: 220; Bayer 1981: 932, 945; Grasshoff 1982: 946; Breedy et al. 2015: 329; Williams and Breedy 2016: 3; Breedy et al. 2019: 409.

Stenogorgia Verrill, 1883: 29; Deichmann 1936: 185; Bayer 1956: F206; Bayer 1981: 945; Breedy et al. 2015: 329; Williams and Breedy 2016: 3; Breedy et al. 2019: 409.

Platycaulos Wright & Studer, 1889: 61; Bayer 1956: F206; Bayer 1981: 945; Breedy et al. 2015: 329; Williams and Breedy 2016: 3; Breedy et al. 2019: 409.

Callistephanus Wright & Studer, 1889: 148-149; Bayer 1981: 945; Breedy et al. 2015: 329; Williams and Breedy 2016: 3; Breedy et al. 2019: 409.

Allogorgia Verrill, 1928: 7-8; Bayer 1956: F206; Bayer 1981: 945; Breedy et al. 2015: 329; Williams and Breedy 2016: 3; Breedy et al. 2019: 409.

Type species.

Gorgonia exserta Ellis & Solander, 1786, by monotypy.

Diagnosis.

Colonies dichotomous, fan-like, irregularly pinnate, unbranched or mostly branching in one plane or several planes. Colour variable among red, white, beige, pink, and orange. Axis flexible. Branches free, rarely with anastomoses. Polyps are conical, mound-like, and prominent, spread or crowded, in biserial zigzagging distribution or all over the branch. Two to three polyp mounds appear on top of each branch. Coenenchyme has two layers of sclerites. Sclerites in coenenchyme are capstans, radiates, and spindles. Thornstars absent in coenenchyme. Polyp-mound sclerites similar to the coenenchyme sclerites, thin, sharp, small, very tuberculate spindles and, sometimes, poorly defined thornscales. Anthocodiae have or do not have long, straight, or curved rods. Collaret absent or with few rods. Tentacles have stout rods or scales.