Antipathella wollastoni ( Gray, 1857 )

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 : 35

Antipathella wollastoni ( Gray, 1857)

Fig. 35

Antipathes subpinnata Gray, 1857: 293 (non Ellis & Solander, 1786)

Antipathes wollastoni Gray, 1857: 293 (the name is given following the description of the specimen Gray assigned to Antipathes subpinnata ).

Aphanipathes? wollastoni: Brook, 1889: 126–128 , pl XI, fig. 6.

Antipathella wollastoni: Opresko, 2001 a: 367 –368; Ocaña et al., 2006: 125–138, figs. 1–7; Opresko, 2014: 2, fig. 1B.

Type and type locality. BMNH (specimen not traced), Madeira Island , depth unknown .

Diagnosis. “The whole specimen, which is without base, is about 56 cm. high, and broken into several pieces. The diameter of the stem is a little over 6 mm. The mode of branching is irregular. The main branches bear smaller, straight, or slightly arched, branchlets, varying from 7 to 13 cm. in length, which have a series of simple pinnules 0.6 to 4 cm. long coming off from all sides of the axis and directed obliquely. A number of branchlets clothed with pinnules arise at intervals directly from the stem as well as from the main branches. In the upper portions of the colony the terminal parts of the main branches appear like immensely developed branchlets, bearing pinnules for a length of 20 to 25 cm, some of which become elongate, thickened, and bear a secondary series of smaller pinnules. Here, evidently, we have the earlier condition of those pinnules which, in the older portion of the colony, have become much more elongate and thickened, and there form well-marked branchlets. In one instance the terminal 14 cm of a main branch bears ten branchlets in all, seven of which are lateral, the others anterior or posterior. They vary in length from 5 to 16 cm, and all form an acute angle with the branch. The shorter ones are very slender, and are evidently elongated pinnules which have become pinnate. The longer ones have a diameter of about 1 mm. at the base, and may bear one to three smaller branchlets. The pinnules are very irregular in length and arranged spirally; there are from three to five to a centimetre, the average length being about 2 cm. The spines are long and slender, having a sharp bend near the base, so that the apical portion of the spines takes a subvertical direction. The spines are arranged in regular longitudinal rows, six or seven of which may be counted from one aspect of a pinnule. They are also arranged in irregular spirals, which may be dextrorse, but a spiral in the opposite direction is almost ecpially well marked. The members of a row are about one length apart. Each spine is about equal in length to the diameter of a pinnule; the base is broad and thick, the apical portion usually slender, with a sharp point” ( Brook, 1889).

Distribution. Known from Macronesia ( Gray, 1857; Brook, 1889; Opresko, 2001 a), Mediterranean Sea ( Ocaña et al., 2006) and Ascension Island (fig 35) ( Opresko, 2014); from 6 m ( Opresko, 2014) to 1425 m depths ( Molodtsova, 2006).

Figures

FIGURE 35. Geographic distribution of antipatharians species occurring in the Southwestern Atlantic not analyzed in the present work.