Verrucella rubra Thomson & Henderson, 1905

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 : 104

Verrucella rubra Thomson & Henderson, 1905

Verrucella rubra Thomson & Henderson, 1905: 315–315 , pl. 4, fig. 13; pl. 5, fig. 8 (Gulf of Mannar).

Opinion: This species does occur in the region, but its true identity is unknown.

Justification:

These Indian records seem to be either invalid or unconfirmable: Thomas & George 1986: 110, fig. 1t, 1–3 (SW coast; Gulf of Mannar).

Literature analysis: This species was established for a badly damaged specimen from the Sri Lankan side of the Gulf of Mannar, but it is unrecognisable from the original poor description and has never been redescribed. Nevertheless, Kükenthal (1924) synonymised the species under Gorgonella umbraculum ( Ellis & Solander, 1786) , which was also unrecognisable at the time: a neotype for that species was designated by Bayer & Grasshoff (1994).

Without knowing the characters of the species, Thomas & George (1986) assigned material to it under the old genus Gorgonella , but that cannot be validated until the original material is redescribed. Verrucella rubra is not currently in the WoRMS database. Thomas & George (1987) just listed the species.