Muricea galapagensis Deichmann, 1941

Breedy, Odalisca & Guzman, Hector M., 2016, A revision of the genus Muricea Lamouroux, 1821 (Anthozoa, Octocorallia) in the eastern Pacific. Part II, ZooKeys 581, pp. 1-69 : 21

Taxon classification Animalia Alcyonacea Plexauridae

Muricea galapagensis Deichmann, 1941 Figures 12, 13

Muricea (?) galapagensis Deichmann, 1941: 6-9; Harden 1979: 150-151.

Material.

Holotype. USNM 43449, a colony and a fragment, Elizabeth Bay, Albemarle Island, Galapágos Islands, Ecuador, 91.4 m, W.L. Schmitt, Presidential Cruise, 26 July 1938.

Description.

The holotype is a 10 cm tall and about 5 mm wide colony, it has one broken branch and according to Deichmann’s illustration ( 1941: 7, Fig. 2) the colony was wider and openly branched. The stem, 1 cm long and 0.3 cm in diameter, is attached to a black coral fragment by a conical holdfast about 1 cm in diameter. The stem subdivides (the lower branches are stumps) producing few long secondary branches sparsely placed, 3.7-29 mm apart, diverging at angles 30°-90° and curved upwards. Branches are 1.6-3 mm in diameter all along their length, and bifurcate up to 4 times (Fig. 12A). Unbranched terminal ends reach up to 80 mm long. The axis is clear amber at the tips and darker at the base. The calyces are low shelf-like, spreading outward and at right angles, no more than 1 mm long, not close or imbricate (Fig. 12 B–C). The lower border is composed of 3-6 projecting spindles and the adaxial border, when present, of smaller spindles in an indistinct rim. The coenenchyme is thin, composed of amber to light orange sclerites (Fig. 12 D–E). The outer coenenchyme and the calyces are composed of large, usually curved, unilateral spinous spindles that project beyond the calyx borders (Fig. 13 A–B). They are visible to the naked eye. The largest size of sclerites in the genus is found in this species. These spindles are of diverse shapes, with blunt, acute or bifurcated ends, 0.43-4.1 mm long and 0.12-0.75 mm wide (Fig. 13A). Furthermore, warty spindles and prickly spindles are present, 0.35-0.45 mm long and 0.075-0.11 mm wide (Fig. 13B). The axial sheath is composed of warty spindles, 0.17-0.30 mm long and 0.04-0.08 mm wide (Fig. 13D). The polyp apertures are covered by pale orange and whitish anthocodial rods and small prickly spindles that were probably transversely placed at the base of the tentacles ( Deichmann 1941). These rods and spindles are 0.2-0.25 mm long and 0.04-0.06 mm wide (Fig. 13C).

The colony is light orange (Fig. 12 A–B).

Distribution.

Reported only from the type locality, Elizabeth Bay, Albemarle Island, Galapágos Islands, Ecuador.

Remarks.

Deichmann (1941) described this species with a specimen attached to a colony of Antipathes galapagensis Deichmann, 1941 that was pulled up with an anchor chain at the type locality. She reported another smaller and paler specimen in the MCZ (96.6 m, Albatross Sta. 3405). The specimen USNM 43449 represents the holotype.