Astrogorgia ramosa (Thomson & Simpson, 1909) Thomson & Simpson, 1909

Breedy, Odalisca & Guzman, Hector M., 2015, A revision of the genus Muricea Lamouroux, 1821 (Anthozoa, Octocorallia) in the eastern Pacific. Part I: Eumuricea Verrill, 1869 revisited, ZooKeys 537, pp. 1-32 : 21

Taxon classification Animalia Alcyonacea Plexauridae

Astrogorgia ramosa (Thomson & Simpson, 1909) comb. n.

Eumuricea ramosa Thomson & Simpson, 1909: 260-261.

Material.

None available.

Description

[based on Thomson and Simpson (1909)]. Thomson and Simpson (1909) described a colony 23 cm tall and 30 cm wide. The branching is irregular, predominantly in one plane. The main stem is sinuous, about 8 mm in diameter arising from a conical holdfast. The branches are tapered at the ends, and the twigs are of almost the same thickness throughout, some are clavate. The axis is horny, composed of thin sheets of gorgonian. The coenenchyme is moderately thin. It is composed of colourless sclerites irregularly arranged at the lower part of the branches and more longitudinally placed at the twigs. The polyps are distributed all around the branches closer at the upper branches and more separated at the lower parts. The anthocodiae are completely retractile into slightly elevated cones, 1 mm in height and 1 mm in diameter at the base. The anthocodial sclerites are arranged in eight distinct groups "en chevron" at the base of the tentacles with projecting teeth around the oral aperture. The coenenchymal sclerites are spindles, straight, curved or S-shaped, with acute or blunt ends, with the surface covered by warts, they measure 0.4-1.5 mm long and 0.075-0.17 wide. The anthocodiae are club-shaped, with warty heads and smooth handles, 0.3-0.6 mm long and 0.05-0.1 mm wide. The colour of the colony is a greyish white.

Distribution.

From the type locality, Andaman sea, Indian Ocean, 83-494 m in depth.

Remarks.

We only have a few drawings of sclerites of this species from Thomson and Simpson (1909: Plate VIII. Fig. 15). The type material was not available for analysis, however, the sclerite drawings, the depth range and the geographic distribution of this species is not consistent with the genus Eumuricea . Considering that the Thomson and Simpson’s (1909) description and illustrations of this species and Eumuricea splendens closely agree; we also propose, with some caution, to transfer Eumuricea ramosa to the genus Astrogorgia (Table 2).