Bathypathes Brook, 1889

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 : 37-38

Genus Bathypathes Brook, 1889

Type-species. Bathypathes patula Brook, 1889 (by original designation)

Diagnosis. “Corallum monopodial and pinnulate; attached to hard substrates by an adhesive basal plate. Pinnules simple, bilateral and either subopposite or alternating. Spines usually simple, triangular, compressed; rarely with knob-like bifurcations at the apex. Polyps 3–9 mm in transverse diameter” ( Opresko, 2002).

Remarks. The genus Bathypathes Brook, 1889 currently contains eight species of monopodial corals with simple pinnules arranged bilaterally in two rows [ B. patula Brook, 1889 ; B. bifida Thomson, 1905 ; B. conferta ( Brook, 1889) ; B. platycaulus Totton, 1923 ; B. galatheae Pasternak, 1977 ; B. erotema Schultze, 1903 ; B. bayeri Opresko, 2001 ; and B. robusta (Gravier, 1918) ]. (Note: the species previously known as B. alternata Broook , was recently transferred to the genus Alternatipathes —see Molodtsova and Opresko, 2017) The genus can be distinguished from Schizopathes mainly due to the presence of the basal disk and longer pinnules in the medial portion of the corallum.

Distribution. Cosmopolitan ( Molodtsova, 2014).