Antipathes Pallas, 1766

Terrana, Lucas, Bo, Marzia, Opresko, Dennis M. & Eeckhaut, Igor, 2020, Shallow-water black corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia: Antipatharia) from SW Madagascar, Zootaxa 4826 (1), pp. 1-62 : 8

Genus Antipathes Pallas, 1766

The genus Antipathes is the first to have been established ( Pallas 1766). It is characterized by colonies that are branched, bramble-like, bushy or fan-shaped ( Opresko 1972, 1974). The branches are not pinnulate and the polyps occur in a single row on smaller branches. The spines can be smooth or papillose, simple or forked, multilobed or knobbed at the apex. There are currently about 70 nominal species ( Opresko 2019), 36 from the Pacific and Indian Oceans, out of which 13 have their type species lost. New species are still being described, which is why it is difficult to determine the exact number of species belonging in the genus Antipathes .