Muricea hispida Verrill, 1866

Breedy, Odalisca & Guzman, Hector M., 2015, A revision of the genus Muricea Lamouroux, 1821 (Anthozoa, Octocorallia) in the eastern Pacific. Part I: Eumuricea Verrill, 1869 revisited, ZooKeys 537, pp. 1-32 : 7-11

Taxon classification Animalia Alcyonacea Plexauridae

Muricea hispida Verrill, 1866 Figures 3, 4

Muricea hispida Verrill, 1866: 328; Harden 1979: 151-152.

Muricea (Eumuricea) hispida Verrill, 1869a: 422-423.

Eumuricea hispida Kükenthal, 1924: 151-152; Riess 1929: 398.

Material.

Lectotype (here designated): YPM 567, dry, Panamá, no depth given, F.H. Bradley, 1866. Paralectotype: YPM 1790, figured specimen in Verrill 1868, plate VII, fig 4, data as in the lectotype.

Other material.

USNM 49386 (erroneously identified as Eumuricea hispida ), dry, Punta Arenas, Isla San Lucas, Golfo de Nicoya, Costa Rica, M. Valerio, 15 January 1930. USNM 34063 (erroneously identified as this species; it is a species of Muricea ), dry, Panamá Bay, L.C. Cash, no more data. USNM 1016582, (erroneously identified as Eumuricea hispida ), dry, Punta Paitilla, Panamá Bay, C.D. Ridder, 14 August 1976.

Description.

The lectotype is an 8.5 cm tall and 4 cm wide incomplete colony, branching is sparingly dichotomous (Fig. 3A). A short stem, 0.4 cm long, arises from a small remainder of the holdfast, and subdivides in two main branches deprived of coenenchyme, one of them is broken and the other subdivides in two secondary branches, 7-10 mm in diameter, that subdivide up to 4 times. All branches are almost the same diameter, with blunt, clavate tips. The branches are separated at distances of 0.6-5 cm and growing upwards at close angles of 30°-45°. Undivided terminal branches are up to 20 mm long, and 8 mm in diameter. The axes are dark brown at the base, and amber at the branchlets. The calyces are all around the branches, close together, about 14 calyces/cm. They are tubular and elongated reaching up to 3.5-4.0 mm long and up to 1.8-2.0 mm wide at the clavate tips; with projecting spines around the polyp apertures (Fig. 3B). The polyps are situated at the summit of the tubular calyces, the apertures are covered by anthocodial sclerites that represent what remained of the polyps. The coenenchyme is very thin, basically composed by the same type as the calyx sclerites. The outer coenenchyme and calycular spindles are unilateral spinous, spinulose on the outer surface and warty on the inner, 0.90-1.60 mm long and 0.14-0.20 mm wide, with acute ends, or one acute and the other blunt; others have stout, complex terminal spikes, 0.57-0.83 mm long and 0.10-0.14 mm wide (Fig. 4A, B). The axial sheath is composed of warty spindles with sparse warts and/or conical tubercles with acute tips; and irregular rods branched at one end, 0.13-0.56 mm long and 0.04-0.09 mm wide (Fig. 4C). The anthocodial sclerites are complex irregular branched forms, thorn scale-like with complex warts on the surface, sparse conical spines and/or with one spinulose end; irregular club-like spindles with warty handlers, straight or curved, and with spinulose, shaft-like heads. These sclerites are 0.26-0.70 mm long and 0.05-0.03 mm wide (Fig. 4D). All the sclerites are colourless (Fig. 3C). The colour of the colony is light brown.

Distribution.

Panamá, Bahía de Caraquéz, Ecuador ( Riess 1929). No data available about the depth range.

Remarks.

This species was first mentioned by Verrill in1866, together with Muricea acervata with a minimal description. They both were properly described in 1869a. Muricea hispida was described from two specimen fragments from Panamá. Muricea hispida is similar to Muricea squarrosa and Muricea tubigera . These three species have long tubular calyces, similar colour and shape of the colonies. The main difference that separates them is the calyx length Muricea tubigera with the largest and Muricea squarrosa with the shortest (Table 1). The calyces in Muricea hispida are sharp and distally curved upwards with projecting spines beyond the calyx border as in Muricea tubigera , however, the latter has thinner, longer and more crowded calyces (Table 1). Muricea tubigera has the largest spindles, up to 2 mm long, in Muricea hispida up to 1.6 mm and in Muricea squarrosa , up to 1.3 mm (Table 1). Muricea hispida was misidentified in some collections, including the syntypes. For example, YPM 1636 listed as a syntype belongs to a different Muricea species, and other specimens, such as USNM 49386, 1016582 belong to Muricea squarrosa . We designate YPM 567as the lectotype of Muricea hispida to establish the identity of this species and avoid future misinterpretation.