Inferiolabiata spinosa Cairns, 1991

Pica, Daniela, Cairns, Stephen D., Puce, Stefania & Newman, William A., 2015, Southern hemisphere deep-water stylasterid corals including a new species, Errinalabrosa sp. n. (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Stylasteridae), with notes on some symbiotic scalpellids (Cirripedia, Thoracica, Scalpellidae), ZooKeys 472, pp. 1-25 : 3-4

Taxon classification Animalia Anthoathecata Stylasteridae

Inferiolabiata spinosa Cairns, 1991

Inferiolabiata spinosa Cairns 1991: 42; Cairns and Zibrowius 2013: 14.

Material studied.

BNHM 1977.8.10.2: two broken colonies and seven fragments, Discovery Expedition Sta. 6, Tristan da Cunha, 3 miles N 30° E of Settlement, 80-140 m depth, 1 February 1926 (in ethanol).

Remarks.

The genus Inferiolabiata consists of only four species: Inferiolabiata labiata (Moseley, 1879), Inferiolabiata lowei (Cairns, 1983a), Inferiolabiata spinosa Cairns, 1991 and Inferiolabiata africana Cairns & Zibrowius, 2013. Our specimens match Inferiolabiata spinosa described from New Zealand and South Africa ( Cairns 1991, Cairns and Zibrowius 2013). They only differ in having longer and thinner gastrostyles (L:D up to 15), in lacking a well-defined ring palisade, and the presence of two unlinear series of dactylostyles instead of three.

This is the first record of Inferiolabiata spinosa from the Atlantic and together with Errina labrosa sp. n. (see below), it is part of the only known stylasterid fauna reported from Tristan da Cunha Archipelago.