Paragorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857

Horvath, Elizabeth Anne, 2019, A review of gorgonian coral species (Cnidaria, Octocorallia, Alcyonacea) held in the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History research collection: focus on species from Scleraxonia, Holaxonia, and Calcaxonia - Part I: Introduction, species of Scleraxonia and Holaxonia (Family Acanthogorgiidae), ZooKeys 860, pp. 1-66 : 1

Genus Paragorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857

Paragorgia Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857: 190. Verrill 1878 b: 476. Kükenthal 1919: 77 [synonymy]; 1924: 28 [synonymy]. Verseveldt 1940: 137. Bayer 1956a: F197; 1993: 2. Sánchez 2005: 15.

Type species.

Alcyonium arboreum Linné, 1758; [= by subsequent designation, Paragorgia arborea (Linnaeus, 1758), by monotypy].

Diagnosis.

Massive, tree-like colonies with thick branches, measuring up to 7.0 meters tall, perhaps as much as 6.0-7.0 meters wide. Sclerites in axial medulla, long, ornate rods (spindles) with branching processes, derived from capstan type, up to 0.6-0.8 mm in length, colorless or pink; elsewhere (coenenchyme, tentacles, etc.) sclerites small (less than 0.15 mm in length), differing shapes, commonly pink or red. Surface sclerites six-, seven-, and eight-radiate capstans, always less than 0.1 mm long, with globular, smooth, grooved or lobulated ornamentation. Sclerites in subsurface/outer medulla of intermediate form, ranging between radiates and spindles. Autozooid polyp tentacles have distinctively blunt, stubby rods or ovals, less than 0.1 mm.