Chrysogorgia fewkesii Verrill 1883
Creators: name: Cordeiro, Ralf T. S.
name: Castro, Clovis B.
name: Pérez, Carlos D.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Cnidaria
Anthozoa
Alcyonacea
Chrysogorgiidae
Chrysogorgia
Chrysogorgia fewkesii

description: Chrysogorgia fewkesii Verrill, 1883
(Fig. 2 C,E, 3)
Chrysogorgia Desbonni: Pourtalès, 1868: 131 –132.
Chrysogorgia Fewkesii Verrill, 1883: 26.
Chrysogorgia fewkesii: Wright & Studer, 1889: 24.
Chrysogorgia fewkesi: Versluys, 1902: 55 –56.— Kükenthal, 1919: 533 –534; 1924: 405.—? Thomson, 1927: 21 –22, Pl. 1, Figs. 6–7.— Deichmann, 1936: 222, 230–231, Pl. 23, Figs. 41–50.—Tixier-Durivault & D’Hondt, 1974: 1409.
Chrysogorgia sp. - Castro et al., 2006: 170 (in part: MNRJ 4189–4191)
Chrysogorgia fewkesii: Cairns, 2001: 768 –772, Figs. 9, 10.
Types: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard MCZ 4850 (Lectotype) (Cairns, 2001).
Type locality: 13°10’10”N, 61°18’15”W (off southwestern St. Vincent, Lesser Antilles), 1048 m depth.
New records: MNRJ 6703, 02°15’30”S, 38°16’00”W (Canopus Bank), 260 m depth; MOUFPE-CNI 201, 04º40’11”S, 36°23’52”W (Potiguar Basin), 897–1001 m depth (3 colonies); MOUFPE-CNI 202, 04º40’18”S, 36º23’42”W (Potiguar Basin), 960–1202 m depth (2 colonies); MOUFPE-CNI 203, 04°45’56”S, 36°08’02”W (Potiguar Basin), 1040–1216 m depth (2 fragments); MNRJ 4191, 15°07'09"S 38°40'32"W, 1026 m depth (1 colony and 1 fragment); MNRJ 4189, 13°24'58"S 38°38'16"W, 727-801 m depth (3 fragments); MNRJ 4190, 13°29'28"S 38°37'56"W, 1044-1275 m depth (1 colony); MNRJ 5966, REVIZEE Bahia (Thalassa RV), unknown depth (4 colonies).
Diagnosis (based on Cairns, 2001): Colonies bottlebush-shaped, but bushy; colonies to 22.5 cm in height. Branching sequence 2/5R. Distance between branches is 3–6 mm and orthorstiche interval 17–20 mm. First internode robust; terminal twigs quite narrow, colony wiry. Number of nodes per branch usually 5–7, rarely to 10. Polyps per internode 2–4. Polyps small, about 1 mm in height. Coenenchymal sclerites of main stem and branches flattened, elongate, pointed plates up to 0.95 mm long and 0.05–0.06 wide, having prominent compound warts on their faces and edges. Body wall sclerites transversely arranged, consisting of curved, slightly flattened spindles, to 0.71 mm in length and 0.04–0.06 mm in width. Tentacular sclerites similar to those of body wall but longitudinally arranged and containing some shorter blunt rods 0.18–0.30 mm in length and 0.04–0.06 mm in diameter.
Description: Colonies bottlebrush shaped, densely branched, up to 12 cm in height (Fig. 2 C, E). Axis golden, wiry, with an average of 1.80 mm in basal diameter. Branches in an ascendent spiral around the main stem, to 31 mm long, diverging between 85° and 110° from the axis. Branching sequence is 2/5R and distance between branches is 3–5 mm. Orthostiche interval 8.00–24.00 mm. Calcareous holdfast, with root-like projections for attachment on soft bottoms. Polyps 1 mm long, distributed in pairs or up to 4 polyps on the branches or isolated on the terminal twig. Coenenchymal scales of the main stem with sparse and low warts, 0.27–0.60 mm long and 0.05– 0.07 wide (Fig. 3 C). Curved spindles from the body wall sparsely warted, transversely arranged, 0.24–0.54 mm long and up to 0.06 mm wide (Fig. 3 A). Pinnular scales 0.05–0.16 mm long (Fig. 3 D). Tentacular spindles similar to those from body wall, but straighter, 0.20–0.32 mm long (Fig. 3 B).
Remarks: Brazilian specimens analyzed herein differ in some aspects from those analyzed by Cairns (2001), mainly by the shorter length of the coenenchymal sclerites (to 0.60 mm versus 0.95 mm). Brazilian specimens, apparently, have sclerites measurements closer to the St. Vincent and Dominica specimens analyzed by Deichmann (1936) (which does not give exact measurements, but estimates lengths around 0.7 mm in sclerites at the base of zooids and up to 0.35 mm in coenenchymal sclerites). Cairns mentioned the width of the basal spindles of the polyp as a consistent character to distinguish among specimens of Chrysogorgia fewkesii and C. multiflora —spindles equal or larger than 0.07 mm in width and more flattened in the latter, while reaching 0.04–0.06 mm of width in the former. Although differences in lengths of spindles of polyps were found in the specimens analyzed, these differences are considered herein as intraspecific variation, as the width of these sclerites were always less than or equal to 0.06 mm. The statement of Cairns (2001), which states that an illustration of any colony of C. multiflora or C. fewkesi serves to illustrate both species is corroborated herein (Figs. 2 C,F). Here an image of a small colony of C. fewkesii (Fig. 2 E) is also provided (see Cairns, 2001: pg. 768, Fig. 7 for comparison with C. multiflora).
Cairns (2001) did not examine specimens identified as C. fewkesii by Thomson (1927) and Tixier-Durivault & d’Hondt (1973) collected in the Eastern Atlantic. Keeping in mind that these records were based on fragments of specimens, Cairns (2001) chose not corroborate this. The record of the present work is the first of this species in the South Atlantic.
Distribution: Straits of Florida, Northwest Providence Channel, Jamaica, Lesser Antilles, off Guianas (Cairns, 2001), Potiguar Basin, Brazil (present study); 430–1200 m. Eastern Atlantic? (Thomson, 1927; Tixier-Durivault & d’Hondt, 1973).
description: Published as part of Cordeiro, Ralf T. S., Castro, Clovis B. & Pérez, Carlos D., 2015, Deep-water octocorals (Cnidaria: Octocorallia) from Brazil: Family Chrysogorgiidae Verrill, 1883, pp. 81-100 in Zootaxa 4058 (1) on pages 87-89, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4058.1.4, http://zenodo.org/record/241598