Gyropora Boschma, 1960

Cairns, Stephen D. & Zibrowius, Helmut, 2013, Stylasteridae (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Filifera) from South Africa, Zootaxa 3691 (1), pp. 1-57 : 19-20

Genus Gyropora Boschma, 1960

Gyropora Boschma, 1960a: 423 –433.—Cairns, 1983b: 465–466 (redescription); 1992: 540, 545 (key to genus).

Type Species. Gyropora africana Boschma, 1960 , by original designation.

Diagnosis. Colonies small, flabellate or columnar, the branches blunt and circular in cross section. Coenosteal texture reticulate-granular and pale reddish-purple in colour. Gastro- and dactylopores arranged in long, meandering, distichoporine rows, the row of gastropores sunken below coenosteal surface. Gastropore tubes short (peripheral), without a ring palisade, each having a gastrostyle covered with blunt spines. Dactylopore spines Ushaped, with common lateral walls, their dactylotomes directed toward the gastropore row; dactylostyles absent. Ampullae unknown.

Discussion. Gyropora differs from Distichopora , some species of which may also have meandering distichoporine pore rows, by having short (peripheral) gastropore tubes and blunt spines on the gastrostyle (see Cairns, 1983b, 1992). The genus is monotypic.

Holocene Distribution. Known only from off Cape Agulhas and Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, 22– 80 m.