Stichopathes pourtalesi Brook, 1889

Wagner, Daniel & Shuler, Andrew, 2017, The black coral fauna (Cnidaria: Antipatharia) of Bermuda with new records, Zootaxa 4344 (2), pp. 367-379 : 371

Stichopathes pourtalesi Brook, 1889

Stichopathes pourtalesi forms unbranched colonies that are 1 m or more in height, and coiled distally forming multiple spirals ( Figure 3a–b ). The skeletal spines are conical and covered with elongated papillae towards their distal half ( Figure 3d ). On the lower part of the corallum, skeletal spines are often forked or have multiple lobes towards their apex. The polypar spines are generally 100–200 µm tall, whereas abpolypar spines are only 50–150 µm in height ( Figure 3d–e ). Skeletal spines are arranged in axial rows with adjoining rows offset in a spiral pattern around the corallum ( Figure 3d ). Spine spacing ranges between 300–750 µm in each row ( Figure 3d ). The polyps are 0.8–1.7 mm in transverse diameter, and spaced 1.0– 2.7 mm apart ( Figure 3c ). Living colonies are light brown or white in coloration ( Figure 3a ). Syntypes that were assigned to S. pourtalesi in the recent redescription of this species were collected from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico at depths ranging between 82–299 m ( Bo & Opresko, 2015). All Bermudan specimens examined as part of this study were collected at depths between 143–305 m ( Table 1).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Stichopathes pourtalesi from Bermuda showing (a) colony in situ, (b) preserved specimen (scale bar = 2 cm), (c) polyps on terminal branch under light microscopy (scale bar = 2 mm), (d) skeletal spines on terminal branch under SEM (scale bar = 200 µm), and (e) close-up of polypar spine under SEM (scale bar = 20 µm).