Litophyton sp. indet.

Fassbender, Nico, Stefanoudis, Paris V, Filander, Zoleka Nontlantla, Gendron, Gilberte, Mah, Christopher L, Mattio, Lydiane, Mortimer, Jeanne A, Moura, Carlos J, Samaai, Toufiek, Samimi-Namin, Kaveh, Wagner, Daniel, Walton, Rowana & Woodall, Lucy C, 2021, Reef benthos of Seychelles - A field guide, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 65970-65970 : 65970

Litophyton sp. indet.

Materials

Type status: Other material. Taxon: scientificName: Litophyton; kingdom: Animalia; phylum: Cnidaria; class: Anthozoa; order: Alcyonacea; family: Nephtheidae; genus: Litophyton; scientificNameAuthorship: Forskĺl, 1775; Location: waterBody: Indian Ocean; country: Seychelles; locality: Aldabra N 1, Aldabra W 1, Alphonse N 1, Astove W 1, D'Arros N 1, Desroches S 1, Poivre E 1 ; minimumDepthInMeters: 58.6 m; maximumDepthInMeters: 148.1 m; locationRemarks: First Descent : Seychelles Expedition ; Identification : identifiedBy: Nico Fassbender , Kaveh Samimi-Namin , Paris Stefanoudis ; dateIdentified: 2019, 2020; identificationRemarks: identified only from imagery; Event : samplingProtocol: Submersible OR Remotely Operated Vehicle OR SCUBA; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Human observation

Notes

Colonies are tree-like with branched polyparium, growing out from one single stem, growing up to 55 cm in height. Polyps are non-retractile and clustered at the end of the terminal branches, forming catkins. Colouration orange to yellow, cream, brown or purple. Litophyton can be confused with the similar-looking Nepthea . They can be distinguished by their general appearance, with Litophyton being very soft compared to the firm Nepthea (Fig. 46).