Muricea aspera Verrill, 1869

Breedy, Odalisca & Guzman, Hector M., 2016, A revision of the genus Muricea Lamouroux, 1821 (Anthozoa, Octocorallia) in the eastern Pacific. Part II, ZooKeys 581, pp. 1-69 : 16

Taxon classification Animalia Alcyonacea Plexauridae

Muricea aspera Verrill, 1869 Figures 8, 9

Muricea aspera Verrill, 1869: 448-449; Kükenthal 1919: 752; Kükenthal 1924: 144-145;? Harden 1979: 143.

Material.

Lectotype. YPM 1663A, dry fragment, Panamá, F.H. Bradley, 1866.

Paralectotypes. PANAMÁ: MCZ 35970; YPM 1663B-C, dry fragments, F.H. Bradley, 1866. YPM 1657, ethanol preserved, Pearl Islands, F.H. Bradley, 1866.

Description.

Type series is comprised of fragments, the larger ones are 12 cm tall and 9 cm wide, and 8.5 cm tall and 4.5 cm wide, probably fragments of a larger specimen ( Verrill 1869).

The lectotype is 12 cm tall and 9 cm wide (Fig. 8A), the branching is lateral and irregular; branches subdivide up to 5 times. Branches are 4 mm in diameter, they subdivide producing branchlets, 4-5 mm in diameter, closely placed, about 6-12 mm apart, mostly at angles of 45°, but some stick out at 90° angles. Unbranched terminal ends are 6-30 mm long. Calyces are prominent, 1-2 mm long from the base to the tip, with lower borders elongated, with straight tips or slightly curved inwards (Fig. 8B). Calyces are close together and slightly imbricate. Coenenchyme is thin, covered with long spindles. All sclerites are of a pale brown to whitish colour (Fig. 8C). The coenenchymal and calycular sclerites are mostly unilateral spinous spindles with one warty side and the other with sparse short spines. These spindles are 0.60-1.35mm long and 0.10-0.35 mm wide (Fig. 9A). Furthermore, elongated thin spindles are present, 0.80-1.15 mm long and 0.10-0.13 mm wide (Fig. 9B). The axial sheath is composed by irregular radiates and spindles, 0.14-0.40 mm long and 0.055-0.085 mm wide (Fig. 9C). Anthocodial sclerites are mostly flat warty rods, 0.15-0.25 mm long and 0.02-0.04 mm wide (Fig. 9D).

Colour of the colony is light brown.

Distribution.

Only reported for the type locality at extreme low waters (according to Verrill 1869). Type locality, Panamá.

Remarks.

Verrill (1869) described this species from two colony fragments that constitute the type series of Muricea aspera .

Other material revised.

PANAMÁ: STRI 559, ethanol preserved, Palito afuera Island, 5-8 m, H.M. Guzman, 17 April 2003.