Rhipidipathes Milne-Edwards & Haime, 1857

Horowitz, Jeremy, Opresko, Dennis, Molodtsova, Tina N., Beaman, Robin J., Cowman, Peter F. & Bridge, Tom C. L., 2022, Five new species of black coral (Anthozoa; Antipatharia) from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea, Australia, Zootaxa 5213 (1), pp. 1-35 : 10

Genus Rhipidipathes Milne-Edwards & Haime, 1857

Diagnosis. Corallum flabellate; anastomosing among some branches; polypar spines acute or blunt, smooth or tuberculate; circumpolypar spines slightly larger than interpolypar spines; hypostomal spines often equal to the circumpolypar spines but may be reduced in size or absent on some portions of the corallum.

Remarks. Although Rhipidipathes is currently in the Aphanipathidae , previous ( Brugler et al. 2013; Bo et al. 2018; Terrana et al. 2021) and the present study indicate that the genus is more closely related to species in the Antipathidae . The present study suggests that Rhipidipathes shares a lineage with the genus Blastopathes Horowitz, 2020 ( Fig 2 ). Both genera have distinct morphological differences. For example, Rhipidipathes consists of thin branches that can fuse to create flabellate “fan-like” colonies ( Opresko 2004) and Blastopathes consists of thick, stem-like branches that do not fuse and possess branches that sprout from clusters to create “tree-like” colonies ( Horowitz et al. 2020). Due to the differences between these “sister” genera, their family-level relationships need to be verified.

Type Species: Rhipidipathes reticulata ( Esper 1795)

Type Locality: East Indian Ocean

Figures

FIGURE 2. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of the Antipatharia based on a 50% complete matrix containing 1,047 loci. Taxa in blue and imaged represent species described in this study.