Genus Calcigorgia Broch, 1935

Diagnosis

Acanthogorgiid gorgonians whose sclerites are not individually conspicuous and not regularly arranged in the polyp. Sclerites are spindles, capstans, ovals, and clubs with warty and leafy heads.

Remarks

The diagnosis given above combines those provided by Broch (1935) and Bayer (1981), and adds the case when clubs with leafy heads are present in the sclerites’ arrangement, as will be shown below for the Calcigorgia matua sp. nov.

Gorgonians of the genus Calcigorgia are distributed from Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to Kurile and Sakhalin Island to the north and to the northwestern Sea of Japan to the south, depth range is to a depth of 900 m (Broch 1935; Heifetz 2002; Heifetz et al. 2005; Dautova 2007).