Echinomuricea indomalaccensis Ridley, 1884

Ramvilas, Ghosh, Alderslade, Philip & Ranjeet, Kutty, 2023, The taxonomy of Indian gorgonians: an assessment of the descriptive records of gorgonians (Anthozoa: Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) recorded as occurring in the territorial waters of India, along with neighbouring regions and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the highlighting of perceived unethical practice, Zootaxa 5236 (1), pp. 1-124 : 57

Echinomuricea indomalaccensis Ridley, 1884

Echinomuricea indomalaccensis Ridley, 1884: 336–337 , pl. 36, fig. B, B′; pl. 38, fig. d–d′′′ (Queensland, Australia)

? Echinomuricea indomalaccensis Grasshoff 1999: 47–48 , figs 77–79 ( New Caledonia).

Opinion: There is no evidence that this species occurs in the region.

Justification:

These Indian records are either unconfirmable or seem to be invalid: Thomson & Henderson 1905: 291–292 ( Sri Lanka); Thomas & George 1986: 103, fig. 1h, 1–5, (SE coast); Thomas et al. 1995: 138, fig. 2d, 1–3 (NE coast); Fernando 2011: 45–46, pl. 22, fig. 1–9 (SE coast); Kumar et al. 2014a: 80, pl. 37, fig. A–D (Pongibalu, South Andaman); Fernando et al. 2015, 2017: 93, pl. 41, fig. A–D (SE coast).

Literature analysis: Thomson & Henderson (1905) described a Sri Lankan colony with many branches and did not provide any illustrations. Thomas & George (1986) and Thomas et al. (1995) presented sclerite drawings that were very simplistic and described a species having calyces and calicular thornscales much larger than those in the holotype as well as the thornscales having a prickly instead of a smooth spine. Hickson (1932) described material from the Great Barrier Reef that also had spines on the blade of the thornscales and stated that he had compared his material with the holotype of the species and saw no reason not to think they were conspecific except for the difference in branching. But he made no comment regarding thornscale spines in the holotype. In 1987 Thomas & George only listed the species.

The publications of Kumar et al. (2014a) and Fernando et al. (2017) described the same material and figured 8 sclerites and yellow colonies. In the latter publications the colonies are stated to be red because the description is identical to that given by Fernando in 2011, which is more comprehensively illustrated. In all of the publications, the calyces and thornscales and polyps sclerites are described as being close to or more than 2X the size those recorded by Ridley or Grasshoff (1999) from the Indo-West Pacific. Unfortunately, no comprehensive description of this species exists and there are a number of nominal species with similar thornscales. The whole genus needs revising.