Tanacetipathes tanacetum ( Pourtalès, 1880 )

Assis, José Eriberto De, de Souza, José Roberto B., de Lima, Manuela M., de Lima, Gislaine V., Cordeiro, Ralf T. S. & Pérez, Carlos D., 2019, Association between deep-water scale-worms (Annelida: Polynoidae) and black corals (Cnidaria: Antipatharia) in the Southwestern Atlantic, Zoologia (e 28714) 36, pp. 1-13 : 7-8

Tanacetipathes tanacetum ( Pourtalès, 1880)

Figs 19–21

Antipathes tanacetum Pourtalès, 1880: 116 , pl. 3, fig. 13.

Description.Corallum monopodial, with branches rarely up to 2nd order, in bottlebrush pattern, and primary pinnules usually in 4 main rows ( Fig. 19). Primary posterior pinnules larger than primary anterior pinnules, 6–20 mm long, varying according to colony size. Anterior primary pinnules 5–7 mm long, cycle separated by ca. 1 mm. Angle between posterior and anterior primary pinnules (polypolar and abpolypar sides, respectively) of ca. 45°. Angle between two anterior or two posterior primary pinnules

(polypar/polypar sides or abpolypar/abpolypar, respectively) of ca. 160°. Secondary pinnules scarce, 3 – 7 (more common 4 – 5), usually near proximal end of posterior primary pinnules ( Fig. 20). Tertiary pinnule rarely present, usually 1 or 2 per secondary pinnule when present. Spines with few ornaments, conical ( Fig. 21). Polypar spines 0.048–0.1 mm long, separated by 0.12–0.18 mm. Abpolypar spines 0.036–0.06 mm long. Polyps not seen (lost tissue).

Material examined. MOUFPE-CNI 351, 04°44”31’S; 36°26’19”W, 101–108 m (Potiguar Basin).

Distribution. Bermuda ( Cairns et al. 1986), Gulf of Mexico, Potiguar Basin (present study) and southern coast of Brazil (Pérez et al. 2005, Opresko 2009) 50 to 108 m. This is the first record for the Potiguar Basin, northeast Brazil.

Remarks. The lectotype of T. tanacetum designated by Pérez et al. (2005) has posterior primary pinnules 1.2 cm long versus the 2 cm of the Potiguar Basin material, which also lack the characteristic curved back pinnules of the lectotype. Nevertheless, not all specimens have these pinnules (Pérez et al. 2005). Our specimens resemble those from off Bahia, northeastern Brazil, which had polypar spines 0.04–0.27 mm long ( Loiola and Castro 2005), in agreement with the 0.13 to 0.3 mm reported by Opresko and Sanchez (2005). In contrast, our colonies showed polypar spines 0.048–0.1 mm long, similar to those of the specimens from Bahia ( Loiola and Castro 2005). The original description emphasizes the presence of a “parasitic worm” similar to that occurring in S. columnaris , but which did not produced changes in host growth ( Pourtalès 1880). The symbiotic worm was described as Antipathipolyeunoa nuttingi Pettibone, 1991 in a paper that also provided an identification key based primarily on the associated species of black corals.