Scleronephthya, Wright & Studer, 1889

Lam, Katherine & Morton, Brian, 2008, Soft corals, sea fans, gorgonians (Octocorallia: Alcyonacea) and black and wire corals (Ceriantipatharia: Antipatharia) from submarine caves in Hong Kong with a checklist of local species and a description of a new species of Paraminabea, Journal of Natural History 42 (9 - 12), pp. 749-780 : 752

Scleronephthya sp. Wright & Studer, 1889

( Figure 1B )

Description

Colony pink, flaccid, branches elongate, digitiform and arising irregularly. Single polyps or polyp-bearing lappets arising directly from the stout stem and branches. Both the stem and branches bearing polyps thatare denser towards the tip. The anthocodial armature consists of 8 points, each with 2–3 pairs of large bow sclerites en chevron. Tentacles and the whole surface of the polyps, stem and branches are covered with small sclerites between 0.08–1 mm in length and thus confer on them a granular appearance. Large straight or curved warty sclerites, 1.2 mm long, occur in the cortex and canal walls. Sclerites are colourless in water.

Distribution

Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, Japan.

Remarks

This species is a new record for Hong Kong. Two specimens (40 mm × 30 mm and 30 mm × 20 mm) were collected from Conic Island Cave.

Figures

Figure 1. Living specimens of soft corals belonging to the Nephtheidae, Nidaliidae and Alcyoniidae. A, Scleronephthya pustulosa; B, Scleronephthya sp.; C, a dark red variety of Dendronephthya gigantea; D, a light pink variety of Dendronephthya gigantea; E, Nephthea chabrolii; F, Nephthyigorgia annectens; G, Paraminabea hongkongensis sp. nov. Scale bar52 cm.