Cirrhipathes de Blainville, 1830

Lima, Manuela M., Cordeiro, Ralf T. S. & Perez, Carlos D., 2019, Black Corals (Anthozoa: Antipatharia) from the Southwestern Atlantic, Zootaxa 4692 (1), pp. 1-67 : 8-9

Genus Cirrhipathes de Blainville, 1830

Type-species. Gorgonia spiralis Linnaeus, 1758 (by subsequent designation: Brook, 1889).

Diagnosis. “Antipathids having an elongate unbranched corallum, around which the polyps are distributed subspirally in several irregular rows, never in a single linear series. The zooids are usually rounded in outline, and are provided with six tentacles arranged in a radiate manner. The mouth is situated on a more or less prominent conical projection of the peristome, which may show a constriction at its base. There are five pairs of mesenteries in the oral cone and three below. The coenenchyme consists of the tissue uniting neighbouring zooids; it contains a system of canals which takes a direction chiefly at right angles to the axis of the stem, and communicates with the bases of the individual zooids” ( Brook, 1889).

Distribution. Cosmopolitan (Dana, 1846; Brook, 1889; Van Pesch, 1914; Zou & Zhou, 1982; Echeverría, 2002).