Bathyphellia australis Dunn, 1982

Fautin, D. G., 2012, Taxonomy and distribution of sea anemones (Cnidaria: Actiniaria and Corallimorpharia) from deep water of the northeastern Pacific, Zootaxa 3375, pp. 1-80 : 31-34

Bathyphellia australis Dunn, 1982

( Figures 22–23, Appendix 9)

Synonym

Daontesia australis: Riemann-Zürneck (1994)

Diagnosis. Elongate column (to about 30 mm) tapered distally. Scapus rough, dark, covered in tenaculi holding multistratified cuticle and typically debris; where tenaculi sloughed, scapus tan, smooth. Scapus short, smooth, orangish. Margin of most specimens contracted, oral disc hidden. Pedal disc typically attached to manganese nodule ( Figure 22). Mesenteries in three cycles, all with somewhat restricted diffuse retractor muscles; six pairs of macrocnemes. Acontia small, difficult to locate (as is common in members of family Bathyphelliidae [Carlgren

Distribution. Bathyphellia australis was described from five specimens collected in the South Pacific Ocean at 3,200 –4,575 m ( Dunn 1983). The hundreds of specimens we have examined from California to Oregon extend the species’ range geographically and to as shallow as 2,709 m ( Figure 23). We infer that members of B. australis occur all along the eastern rim of the Pacific Ocean at appropriate depths.

Taxonomic remarks. Being congeners, Bathyphellia australis and B. margaritacea ( Danielssen, 1890) resemble one another in some respects. They differ in geographic distribution and microhabitat, the latter recorded only from the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans ( Danielssen 1890; Carlgren 1942; Doumenc 1975; Riemann- Zürneck 1997; Sanamyan et al. 2009), embedded in soft sediment. Although similar, their cnidae differ. The tall cylindrical form of B. australis is virtually invariant because its dense tenaculi prevent it from shortening, whereas that of B. margaritacea is “trumpet-shaped” and variable in length:width ratio ( Sanamyan et al. 2009: 1246). We found small acontia in all specimens of B. australis but, according to Sanamyan et al. (2009) they may be absent in some specimens of B. margaritacea .

Riemann-Zürneck (1997) moved Bathyphellia australis to Daontesia Carlgren, 1942 in light of her revised definition of the genus, giving primacy to the character of a multistratified cuticle, a feature shared with the type species of the genus, Daontesia praelonga ( Carlgren, 1928b) , as noted by Dunn (1982). Two characters separate Daontesia and Bathyphellia in the key of Carlgren (1949), the number of macrocnemes (12 in the former, six in the latter) and the number of tentacles (same as the number of mesenteries in the former, fewer in the latter). Riemann- Zürneck (1997: 367) did not mention the number of tentacles in her revised definition of Daontesia but stated the number of macrocnemes as “six or 12 pairs,” despite both D. praelonga and D. porcupina Riemann-Zürneck, 1997 , having only six pairs, and added to the definition “Tentacle ectoderm with a peculiar b -mastigophore.” Cinclides may occur in Daontesia . Bathyphellia australis has 12 macrocnemes and lacks cinclides; we have not found in the tentacles the distinctive type of nematocyst characterizing Daontesia . We therefore retain B. australis in the genus Bathyphellia .

Material examined. See Appendix 9.