Muricea echinata Verrill, 1866

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 : 16-21

Taxon classification Animalia Alcyonacea Plexauridae

Muricea echinata Verrill, 1866 Figures 10, 11

Muricea echinata Verrill, 1866: 328 (pars.); Verrill 1869: 426-427; Kükenthal 1919: 752; Kükenthal 1924: 143; Hickson 1928: 361-363.

Muricea echinata var. flabellum Verrill, 1869: 427-428; Kükenthal 1919: 752; Kükenthal 1924: 143.

Muricea echinata not Eunicea echinata Valenciennes, 1855: 13 (nom. nud.); Kükenthal 1924: 123.

Muricea echinata not Muricea echinata Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857: 143

Material.

Lectotype: YPM1565d, dry, Pearl Islands, Panamá, F.H. Bradley, 1866.

Paralectotypes: PANAMÁ: MCZ 67511, YPM 560 a-f, YPM 1565a,c-h, dry, Pearl Islands, F.H. Bradley, 1866.

Description.

The lectotype is a colony 8.5 cm long and 7 cm wide, branching lateral and irregular and spreading in almost one plane (Fig. 10A). The main stem is 15 mm tall and 8 mm in diameter, it subdivides in three secondary branches, 5-7 mm in diameter, and then subdivides up to 6 times in an irregular manner producing subordinate branches, no more than 15 mm apart, at angles 35°-90°. These branches are of the same diameter, or thinner at the base and little thicker toward the tips, which are wide and clavate. The secondary branches are mostly crooked and curved upwards. About 1 cm oval portion of the holdfast remains. No anastomosis occurs. Unbranched terminal ends are 5-7 mm in diameter and 6-30 mm long. Axes are amber at the tips and darker at the base. Calyces are all around the branches, around 0.5 mm apart, not imbricate (Fig. 10B). They are prominent, up to 3 mm long, and 1-2 mm wide at the base, covered with large spindles with sharp ends, some of them project from the outer side (abaxial) elongating the lower border. The calyx size and spacing vary from the larger branches to the thinner, being larger and acute, and closer arranged at the upper branches and shorter and more distant at the lower or main branches. Polyps are small, on the upper (adaxial) side of the calyces. Coenenchyme is thin, outer coenenchyme is composed basically by the calyx sclerites, they are orange and light brown, the larger are darker (Fig. 10 C–D). The outer coenenchymal and calycular spindles are of diverse shapes, unilateral spinous, spinulose on the outer surface and tuberculate on the inner, with conspicuous forms with bifurcated ends or cuspidate prolongations. These spindles are 1.55-2.4 mm long and 0.20-0.32 mm wide (Fig. 11A). Furthermore modified prickly-spindles are present, 0.35-0.6 mm long and 0.1-0.22 mm wide, with lateral thorny processes (Fig. 11B) and some with bifurcated ends. The axial sheath is composed of small, light brown warty spindles, 0.3-0.53 mm long and 0.09-0.13 mm wide (Figs 10D, 11C). Anthocodial sclerites are light brown rods and whitish- branched spindles (Fig. 11D), 0.07-0.2 mm long and 0.025-0.05 mm wide. They are longitudinally arranged at the base of the tentacles.

Colour of the colony is reddish brown.

Variability.

The examined colonies are up to 10 cm tall and up to 14 cm wide, branching irregular, spreading in almost one plane. Calyces can be up to 3.5 mm long. Colour of the colonies varies to a deeper orange hue.

Remarks.

Muricea echinata was erroneously mentioned by Verrill (1866) as Muricea echinata Valenciennes, 1855 (which was originally Eunicea echinata ), with a minimal description. Later Verrill (1869) re-described the species with specimens from Pearl Islands, Panamá. We searched for the Muricea echinata type in the MNHN where Valenciennes’ specimens are kept, and found two specimens labeled as Muricea echinata : one, in the dry collection collected by Duchassaing in 1851 (that is the only information available), but only the wooden base of the specimen is left (S. Cairns pers. comm.); and the other collected by Agassiz in 1863, in the wet collection. None of these specimens could have been Valenciennes species because Duchassaing collections of Eunicea and Muricea species were from the Atlantic. Moreover, the wet specimen was collected after the species was named. Besides, there is no reference that could corroborate that Verrill analysed any of Valenciennes’ specimens. We conclude that Eunicea (Muricea) echinata Valenciennes was a nomen nudum or an inexistent species. Consequently, Verrill was the author of the species, producing the first description. Many different specimens have been assigned to this species in museum collections because its status was not clearly defined. We designate the specimen YPM 1565d as the lectotype to establish the taxonomic status of Muricea echinata . Verrill (1869) described Muricea echinata var. flabellum based on colonies with more branches, but in any other aspect this variety was consistent with the typical form. Therefore we consider it a synonym.

Other material revised.

COSTA RICA: USNM 44213, dry, Golfo de Nicoya, M Valerio, 20 February 1931. MÉXICO: USNM 42132, dry, Baja California, La Paz Bay, AL Herrera, 27 November 1919; USNM 57094, dry, Nayarit, West of Tepic, CR Orcutt, 30 August 1922. PANAMÁ: BM 1946.1.14.47; BM 1946.14.46; BM 30.6.17.17, dry, rock pools, low water mark, off Balboa, C. Crossland, 1914-1916. MNHN no catalogue number, ethanol preserved, M. Agassiz, 1863.