Cerianthus bathymetricus Moseley, 1877

Stampar, Sergio N., Reimer, James D., Maronna, Maximiliano M., Lopes, Celine S. S., Ceriello, Hellen, Santos, Thais B., Acuna, Fabian H. & Morandini, Andre C., 2020, Ceriantharia (Cnidaria) of the World: an annotated catalogue and key to species, ZooKeys 952, pp. 1-63 : 1

9 Cerianthus bathymetricus Moseley, 1877

Cerianthus bathymetricus Moseley, 1877: 302-305; Andres 1883: 350; van Beneden 1897: 142; Pax 1910: 167; Mello-Leitão 1919: 37; Molodtsova 2000: 14-15, 17, 19; Molodtsova 2001b: 913

Type locality.

Deep sea, North Atlantic (35° 26'N 50° 53'W), at 5000 m depth.

Distribution.

Only known from deep water at the type locality.

Remarks.

This species is one of the smallest tube-dwelling anemone species known. The described specimens are only 2.5 cm long and lived in a very long membranous tube of more than 11 cm in length. The description is not detailed but provides some information on the anatomy, indicating a very long hyposulcus (especially in figure 17, Moseley 1877). Molodtsova (2001b) proposed that this species should be placed within the family Arachnactidae , however we are uncertain about this classification as some species of Cerianthidae have comparatively long hyposulcus regions, and the small size of this species may be misleading. Additionally, the description of the tube is much more consistent with the organization of Cerianthidae (see Stampar et al. 2015a). Thus, we choose to maintain this species as valid until additional studies say otherwise.

Type material.

Not found in this study, but the original description provided a graphic representation.