Menella cf. kanisa Grasshoff, 2000

Namin, Samimi & Ofwegen, Van, 2009, Some shallow water octocorals (Coelenterata: Anthozoa) of the Persian Gulf, Zootaxa 2058, pp. 1-52 : 39

Menella cf. kanisa Grasshoff, 2000

( Figs. 13 f, 28-29)

Menella kanisa Grasshoff, 2000: 91 .

Material: RMNH Coel. 38784, one specimen overgrown basally by Carijo sp., off Kuwait, Koninklijke Shell Exploratie en produktie laboratorium, station T1570, coll. A.J. Keij, 1966

Description. The colony is 29 cm long, forming a sparsely branched bush ( Fig. 13 f). Calyces hardly projecting, closely set to each other, and situated all around the branches.

The polyps have a collaret and points made up of spindles which are up to 0.20 mm long; the point spindles having one end dentate ( Fig. 28 a–b).

Surface layer of coenenchyme with rooted leaves, up to 0.40 mm long, with mostly one big, flat, thin leaf ( Figs. 28 f, 29a). Additionally a few leaf spindles are present, up to 0.30 mm long ( Fig. 28 e).

Inner layer of coenenchyme with capstans, derivatives of capstans, spindles, and branched bodies, the latter up to 0.40 mm long ( Figs. 28 c–d, 29b).

Colour. The colony is reddish, polyp sclerites are colourless, all others dull red.

Remarks. This species is similar to the previous one but differs in having mostly rooted leaves with a smooth leaf, and different colony shape and colour.

Grasshoff (2000: 91–93) described only one paratype of Menella kanisa being red like the present specimen, most of his specimens had a yellow colour. The present material fits Grasshoff’s description, although the somewhat schematic drawings of sclerites given by him still leave some doubts about our identification.

Figures

FIGURE 28. RMNH Coel. 38784, Menella cf. kanisa Grasshoff, 2000: a, point spindles; b, collaret spindle; c-d, capstans and spindles of the subsurface layer; e, leaf spindles of surface layer; f, rooted leaves of surface layer. Scale at d applies to d – e.

FIGURE 13. a, RMNH Coel. 38772, Echinomuricea sp. a; b, RMNH Coel. 38776, Echinomuricea sp. b; c, RMNH Coel. 38781, Menella sp. a; d, RMNH Coel. 38782, Menella sp. b; e, RMNH Coel. 38783, Menella sp. c; f, RMNH Coel. 38784, Menella cf. kanisa Grasshoff, 2000; g, RMNH Coel. 38907, Paraplexaura sp. Scales at a and f 2 cm, all others 1 cm.