Menella

Namin, Samimi & Ofwegen, Van, 2009, Some shallow water octocorals (Coelenterata: Anthozoa) of the Persian Gulf, Zootaxa 2058, pp. 1-52 : 32

Menella sp. b

( Figs. 13 d, 24–25)

Material: RMNH Coel. 38782, one specimen, Larak Island, coll. K. Samimi Namin.

Description. The colony is 12 cm high, sparsely branched ( Fig. 13 d). 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, the point spindles are up to 0.20 mm long; the collaret ones up 0.30 mm long ( Fig. 24 a–c).

Surface layer of coenenchyme with rooted leaves, up to 0.40 mm long, with mostly one big, flat, thin leaf; sometimes one or two extra smaller leaves are present ( Figs. 24 d, 25). Additionally a few leaf spindles are present, up to 0.50 mm long ( Fig. 24 e).

Inner layer of coenenchyme with capstans, derivatives of capstans and spindles, the latter up to 0.30 mm long and often branched ( Fig. 24 f–g).

Colour. Colony brown, polyp sclerites colourless, all others yellow.

Remarks. This species is similar to the previous one, having similarly shaped rooted leaves. It differs in having a different colour, and different interior sclerites.

Figures

FIGURE 24. RMNH Coel. 38782, Menella sp. b: a-b, point spindles; c, collaret spindles; d, rooted leaves of surface layer; e, leaf spindles of surface layer; f – g, capstans and spindles of the subsurface layer. Scale at a applies to a, d, g.

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.