Muricella complanata Wright & Studer, 1889

Horvath, Elizabeth Anne, 2019, A review of gorgonian coral species (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Alcyonacea) held in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History research collection: focus on species from Scleraxonia, Holaxonia, and Calcaxonia - Part I: Introduction, species of Scleraxonia and Holaxonia (Family Acanthogorgiidae), ZooKeys 860, pp. 1-66 : 1

Muricella complanata Wright & Studer, 1889

Muricella complanata Wright & Studer, 1889: 125-126. Thomson and Henderson 1905a: 303. Nutting 1909: 717-718. Thomson and Simpson 1909: 250. Nutting 1910: 31. Thomson and Russell 1910: 158. Kükenthal 1924: 172.

Material examined.

No material identified as this species in collection at SBMNH (see Appendix 1: List of material examined).

Remarks.

Included here briefly, as there was a California collection location for a specimen that was identified as this species.

Based on Kükenthal (1924), the species ranges from coastal to abyssal depths; likely can be found in a wide and diverse number of locations around the world. The type was collected off Japan, but present location of the type specimen could not be determined. The specimen upon which Nutting’s 1909 description was based, taken by the Fisheries Steamer ‘Albatross’, Station 4461, Point Loma Light-house, S 3, E 9.3 miles, 285 fathoms, was said to have differed slightly from the type, particularly in having a well-marked collaret and in the arrangement of the calycular sclerites. Kükenthal (1924) indicated that the California location (at an approximate depth of 250 m) is questionable. There is no certainty that any specimens found in the California Bight will be specimens of Muricella complanata , or whether the species actually exists. Harden (unpublished dissertation, 1979) suggested that Muricella complanata was synonymous with Swiftia torreyi . Both were stated to display anastomosing ( S. torreyi is always anastomosed; was unable to determine if that is always case with Muricella complanata , as thus far no confirmed specimen of this species has been located). As well, I would disagree with a comment found in an unpublished Bayer annotation: " Muricella complanata = a Swiftia ?" in that S. torreyi is a plexaurid, while Muricella is a recognized genus within the family Acanthogorgiidae ( Bayer 1981c, Fabricius and Alderslade 2001, Cordeiro et al. 2018f) with no mention of any species of Muricella being synonymized with any Swiftia species.